Health workers would bail on pandemic: study

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=03836cc6973671ac&cat=89d96798a39564bd

TORONTO (CP) - A disconcerting proportion of public health employees think their services would not be needed during an influenza pandemic and say they are unlikely to show up for work, a new study has found.

The study, based on a survey in the state of Maryland, reports that 46 per cent of public health workers were unlikely to report to work during a pandemic. Many erroneously thought staff who don't typically work in infectious disease containment operations would not be required during a disease emergency.

That underscores the need to educate staff in all facets of a public health organization - and the health system at large - that their help will be critical when a pandemic occurs, the lead author said.

"Training programs are usually focused at . . . increasing the workers' capabilities to perform their duties during an extreme event," said Dr. Ran Balicer, an epidemiologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

But what we see here is that we should perhaps focus even more on increasing the willingness to come to work in the first place."
more...

And remember these employess belong to Canada's government system...

[file83]

1. All you need is Canned Tuna and plenty of Powdered Milk!

Oh yeah, and don't forget to store it under your bed.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. And plastic sheeting and duct tape bought from good

ol, HD... make Tom Ridge richer.

[Divernan]

7. Ridge collecting $100,000 year to be on Board of Home Depot.

Yes, duct tape has been very, very good to Heartbreak Ridge, as we called him when governor of PA.

www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives
(If this link doesn't allow you access, google Tom Ridge,Home Depot and Board of Directors)

If it walks like a duct... Tom Ridge and the Department of HomeDepotLand Security
Remember duct tape mania? In February 2003, Tom Ridge's Department of Homeland Security recommended obtaining duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal a house in the event of a chemical or biological attack or disaster. The advice triggered a national debate, and also a run on America's home improvement stores.

Here's a CNN story from that month:
www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/11/emergency.supplies/

A Lowe's hardware store in Alexandria, Virginia, said every roll of duct tape has been sold. Another Alexandria Home Depot store reported sales of duct tape tripled overnight."Everything that was on that newscast, we are selling a lot of it," said Rich Pierce with a Home Depot in the D.C. area.In fact, CBS Marketwatch reports that Home Depot soon "went so far as to set up special Homeland Security displays nears it entrances to tout sales of duct tape, plastic sheeting, batteries and bottled water, among other safe-room supplies. "

(Blogger's comment)
And last August, this blogger found unscientific evidence that Home Depot stock went up every time that Ridge raised the nation's terror alert code to Orange, which (in what would have to be a coincidence, right?) is also the color of the Home Depot logo.

The duct tape furor was two years ago. Ridge -- who used to be our governor here in Pennsylvania -- has left the Bush administration, insisting that he wasn't earning enough on his $175,700 annual salary to pay for his two teenagers to attend college.Well, all we can say is....is this a great country, or what?!!! Because just a month after leaving office, Ridge has found himself a gig that involves some good money, not that much work, and probably some stock options to boot.
This week, Ridge was named one of the 13 members of the board of directors of the world's largest home improvement company...Home Depot.
(Back to CNN article)

"Tom Ridge served his country with great distinction, and we are honored to have him join our board, where we expect that his unique global experience and perspective will make a profound contribution to our company and our shareholders," said Bob Nardelli, chairman, president and CEO.

(END OF CNN QUOTE-return to blog.)
Oddly enough, in a move that could only be described as Gannonesque, none of the financial journalists who wrote about the Home Depot-Ridge move was impertinent enough to ask what the former Cabinet member might earn in this gig. So Attytood did some research, and found this story from October 2003:

Home Depot's board members are paid an annual retainer of $90,000. On top of that, directors receive $2,000 for attending a board meeting and $1,000 for committee meetings. The company pays an additional $5,000 to chairmen of any of its committees, except for the audit committee, whose chairman gets $10,000.

So there you have it, folks -- the company that make a killing on Ridge terror alerts (the only killing that took place, we might note...gratefully, of course) is now paying Ridge in the ballpark of $100,000, plus options, before his Cabinet chair has even cooled down.

Does this deal stink? If it walks like a duct...

[Ecumenist]

3. No kiddin'.

In a pandemic where the disease causing it has no known cure or prevention, what good would it do for these people to sacrifice themselves? While I believe that many would stay and try to help the sick and dying, there would probably be as many, if not more, who would make the choice to go to their families and loved ones to help at least or to spend whatever time left with them at most.

[SYNERCHOSIS]

4. Yet for profit health care

is the best because it provides the incentive to work. LOL

I wonder if that number would be any different in a "Person oriented society versus a possession orientated society?

[Mojorabbit]

5. I wouldn't go to work either with no protection

We can't afford bird flu plans, hospital heads say
Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:07 PM ET

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government may be urging local officials and hospitals to get ready for a bird flu pandemic, but top hospital executives said on Tuesday they cannot do everything that is being called for.

"If the federal government doesn't help run this, it really isn't going to go well," Dr. Frank Peacock, who heads emergency preparedness at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, told a conference.

The H5N1 avian flu virus has picked up speed in birds, spreading to 20 new countries in the past six weeks. It cannot yet infect people easily, but it has killed 109 of the 194 confirmed infected with H5N1 in nine countries.
snip
Experts say the United States and other countries have too few drugs, supplies such as latex gloves, or even equipment such as ventilators to deal with a pandemic of a respiratory virus.
snip
Peacock said much of the response to a pandemic will involve very basic medical care -- including triage, or sorting out which patients cannot be helped except through heroic measures.

"Those patients are going to get some morphine and get sat in a corner. That is the definition of a disaster -- need exceeds resources," Peacock said.

Then health workers will turn to patients who are more easily helped, and the very sickest may have to be allowed to die as comfortably as possible, he said.


edited to add link
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-04-18T230714Z_01_N184659_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-HOSPITALS.xml

[MrMonk]

6. The survey was made in Maryland

so it does not reflect the attitudes of Canadian employees.

The study has limitations. The sample size was small - 308 employees from three public health departments in a single U.S. state. And it was conducted from March to July last year, before the issue of pandemic flu hit the public radar in a serious and sustained fashion.

[dusty64]

8. Are'nt they

trying to pass a law that compels health workers to work at the point of a gun if necessary? I wonder how they plan to enforce that.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. With the cops that stay home too

that's how.

[Tesha]

10. "Campion, we're dying down here!" (NT)

[AnneD]

11. Damn straight I won't show up.....

health care corps have been making a fortune off of my hard work for years. They have shown little care or compassion for my well being. They have fought against stickless needles, latex free gloves (and even providing gloves years ago), better protective gear (masks that WILL better protect against inhaleing this shit), and lifting equipment (did you know Nurse lifting injuries are greater than dock workers and postal workers). I have Nurse friends that went through hell in Toronto during the SARS outbreak. The government wasn't the only one that learned something!

I will not be shamed, intimidated, or threatened to come into work when it is against my own safety. I will not be sacrificed on the altar of public health. I have sacrificed one time too many and frankly, my giveadamn is busted. I have petitioned and testified on public health and nursing concerns for years only to be ignored at worst and patronized at best. This mess was created by not taking Nursing concerns seriously (not funding Nursing training and adequately compensating trained Nurses).

I'll be glad to instruct folks as how best to prevent and take care of their loved ones, but my priority is with my family.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. What's a 'stickless needle'?(n/t)

[AnneD]

14. Many health care workers 'recap' used needles.

This was done historically to protect others from accidental sticks (which can lead to all kinds of nasties like HEP B & C, AIDS, etc). We stopped recapping but people were still getting accidently injured during and after injections. A stickless needle means that the needle is capped before the injection and once withdrawn, recaps automatically. The staff cannot receive an accidental stick. They cost a few cents more but Hospitals refused to invest in the protection of their staff. It literally took and act of Congress to get this simple safety device. Sorry, patients still get stuck :evilgrin:

[lovuian]

13. Anne the American public are so blind ...They will need tons

of troops to enforce quarantine... and they don't have them...

And to MAKE people work is really stupid...

The hospitals will be absolutely useless they are already filled as it is...

Theres not enough beds not enough not enough not enough...

[AnneD]

15. Even now...

hospitals and Nursing home try to require you to report to the hospital during a hurricane. Hello. How many days notice do you get that it is on the way. Only a fool hangs around....AND YET, hospital expect me to abandon my family and come in. BULLSHIT! If they were serious they would: allow my family to come with me, provide us with food and shelter for the duration, and give me premium pay (like electrical workers get).

I had an experience during Rita where I was suppose to take care of mentally ill folks: without meds, O2 or suction, without patient charts, without medication orders, without proper patient identification. Talk about setting yourself up for a lawsuit and unsafe Nursing practice. I refused to take patients (report) under those circumstances. I also didn't take too kindly to being 'ordered' around like I was a dog. Poor planing on their part does not constitute an emergency on my part.