Nurses’ Strike

(Regarding story on SFVBJ web site “Thousand Oaks Nurses Pull Out of Strike” on Dec. 22) As a nurse, I find it ironic that the nurses of SEIU Local 121 RN want to address patient care using a patient based acuity system (the assignment of patients to nurses based on degree and complexity of illness and treatment and nurse’s skill sets) since it was the nursing unions and others that pushed for the current patient/nurse ratio that is now mandated by California law. I attended many of the legislative sessions and witnessed nursing union representatives from the SEIU and CNA, to name a few, argue that their cookie-cutter plan was far better then the patient based acuity system being supported by many nurses – myself included. I wonder, why any hospital (many of whom also supported a patient-based acuity system) would acquiesce to SEIU local 121RN current contract demands when the law only requires that they adhere to the nursing union sponsored and supported numeric nurse/patient ratio law? I guess this is a case of hindsight being 20/20. Geneviève M. Clavreul, RN, Ph.D. Pasadena