National Nurses United continues to press for greater Ebola protections

Following a Congressional hearing Friday in Washington on Ebola and the latest confirmed Ebola patient in New York Thursday, National Nurses United said a major gap remains in U.S. preparedness to deal with the infectious disease.

NNU said the federal government, both Congress and the White House, have failed to mandate all hospitals implement the highest standards and protocols to protect nurses, other health workers and the public.

NNU, represented in the hearing by co-president Deborah Burger, RN, expressed thanks to committee chair Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland for convening the hearing, and especially Cummings for pressing NNU’s call for a mandate. Afterwards, NNU stressed there must be no more delays.

“We are not interested in more communication between various agencies. We are solely interested in a mandate directing every hospital, every U.S. health facility, to immediately implement the optimal precautions, in both personal protective equipment and proper training,” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro.

“An ‘abundance of caution,’ which we heard advocated in the hearing, has little meaning in the absence of the clout of an enforcement mechanism. It is unconscionable that the hospitals do not have the optimal standards and protocols already in place to protect our caregivers – and that our top representatives in both branches of government are not directing them to do so,” DeMoro said.

“We know these hospitals. Their priority is not optimal Ebola preparedness, it is protecting their budgetary goals and profit margins. Unless there is an Act of Congress or an executive order from the White House, they will opt for the cheapest standard, not the best. The legislators, the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need to stop enabling them by failing to act,” DeMoro said.

In her formal testimony to the committee, Burger noted, “The Ebola pandemic and the exposure of health care workers to the virus in Texas and the real threat that it could occur elsewhere in the U.S., represent a clear and present danger to public health… The risk of exposure to the population at large merely starts with frontline caregivers like registered nurses, physicians and other healthcare workers – it does not end there. If we cannot protect our nurses and other healthcare workers, we cannot protect anyone.”

NNU is inviting the public to join with nurses in signing an online petition demanding such a mandate from the President and Congress.

This article is adapted from a report on the NNU website.