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BOHEMIAN
Rhapsodies Nurses United
Memorial Hospital RNs on strike BY KIM LEWIS AND PATTI GARRETT
R
egistered nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital staged a strike and suffered a lockout last week. Eighty-eight percent of a 660-member Staff Nurses Association voted. This was a painful decision; the safety of our patients hangs in the balance.
Historically, Memorial Hospital has chosen to make all “necessary” budget reductions from the front lines of patient care. On Aug. 20, the administrative team proposed something unprecedented: to eliminate all language pertaining to benefits and staffing from our union contract. Their plan involves significant reductions in all areas, and silences our voices from decisions about working conditions. Our foremost concern is the ability to maintain safe staffing and provide high standards of care. One hundred and 50 patient-care positions were eliminated to “fix the budget” in 2009, creating a multitude of unsafe situations and increasing workplace stress and overtime. In 2010, nurses accepted wage freezes in return for restoring staff positions. During that period, Memorial increased administrative salaries in ranges of $25,600 to $158,300. Managers received incentive bonuses to decrease operating costs. The expectation became “do more with less,” which literally translates to “give more with less.” For 37 years, the nurses’ union at Memorial has survived multiple administrations and agendas. Millions of dollars have been wasted on poor planning; ill-conceived, failed and abandoned remodels; and cumbersome computer technologies that do not interface. So this year, Memorial has an “operating margin” of $38 million, yet drastic cuts in nursing staff, wages and benefits are necessary to afford new technologies and offset any Medicare losses. Perhaps CEO Deborah Proctor could contribute $1 million of her annual $3 million salary. Or the top tier administrators could contribute the $200,000 in “nontaxable benefits” they collectively receive each year. What else might be possible? If Memorial Hospital would commit to listening to its patientcare staff instead of hiring “efficiency consultants” and flying administrators around the country looking for better ideas, much money could be redirected toward patient care. Nurses are the embodiment of St. Joseph’s values: justice, dignity, service and excellence. We will not be silenced. Kim Lewis and Patti Garrett are Registered Nurses at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Open Mic is a weekly feature in the ‘Bohemian.’ We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write openmic@bohemian.com.
The Cost of Beauty “Symphonie Fantastique” (Sept. 26) isn’t a story about right and wrong or noconfidence votes from Sonoma State faculty or an approving thumbs-up from Lang Lang or Sanford Weill. It’s a classic tale of the human pursuit of excellence permitted, encouraged and practically worshiped in our culture. Ruben’s personal quest to build the Green Music Center reflects the heroic journey depicted in Ayn Rand’s novels, which many of my right- and left-biased friends have found invigorating—the individual ascending above the daily grind in quest of the highest human expression despite all obstacles in his or her way. Now and for many years, the Green Music Center, with its superior acoustic qualities, will showcase not only Ruben’s achievement but some of the world’s most highly talented musicians in one of the most acoustically divine spaces attainable. The downside is that to create such a gem is very expensive, and it’s logical to argue that the resources could have been put to more practical use at Sonoma State, or in the bigger picture, to benefit a wider swath of people in need, such as the sick or the hungry, or the poor, as might be the course advocated by Martin Luther King Jr. But it’s not logic that drives the heroic journey to rise above the ordinary; it’s the undeniable human pull toward excellence, even celebrity and beauty. One side of us craves the exceptional talent and/or beauty of great art, a gorgeous landscape or a great athlete, dancer, movie star or an awesome temple of sound like the Green Music Center. Another side of us longs for fairness and equity. We oscillate between these poles and live with the contradictions. Either that or stand in the middle of the road where nothing at all very enthralling happens. So I’ll take a risk here by saying thank you, Ruben. Thank you, Ayn Rand. And
thank you, Martin Luther King Jr. I’ll think of you all when I listen to the music at the Green Music Center, and for a few moments of delight, let the sound dissolve all conflicting thoughts.
JEFF BLACK Sebastopol
Kudos to Grizzle Nicholas Grizzle, I read your fair, nonjudgmental, illuminating, funny and thoroughly investigated article (“Symphonie Fantastique”). Kudos! This morning, I read the one in the San Francisco Chronicle. While it was good, it could not match your intelligent assessment of this building and what it all means. I must say that you have become a real jewel to the world of journalism, and I hope that your peers realize just how much you contribute to raising the cultural curtain in the North Bay.
SHERI MIGNANO Santa Rosa
Too Much Love for Levi? I cannot help but get the impression from the last couple of references to Levi Leipheimer in your paper that the Bohemian is now endorsing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports (“Roll On,” Sept. 26) Sadly, the same win-at-all-costs attitude that has ruined our political system has now done the same thing to the world of professional bicycle racing. Those who prefer to take the ethical high road need to realize one basic unshakable reality, and that is, without sportsmanship, there is no sport. Once you take performance-enhancing drugs, you have thrown sportsmanship out the window. Just like the politician, you are now nothing more than a cog in a corporate, money-making machine. You are no different than the guy sitting next to me in class at SRJC who is cheating on a test. The true heroes of the Tour de France are those who were man enough to stand up to the pressure and not do