Nurses Group Pickets

As a registered nurse, I am angered once again by California Nurses Assn. (CNA) tactics. The picketing [Feb. 12] at Ventura County Medical Center did nothing to enhance patient care or maintain nursing advocacy for patients who cannot speak for themselves.

Nothing but a special-interest group representing less than 10% of the nurses in this state, CNA calls itself a professional nursing organization. How can CNA and its strategies possibly be professional? That’s narrow-minded thinking that puts both patients and nurses at risk.

Besides using a bargaining ploy for negotiations already in progress, CNA once again fails to encourage its members to cope with the transition and change necessary in this health care environment. Masked as “improving patient care quality” and “ensuring patient safety,” these picket lines and CNA strike tactics actually add to health care costs and jeopardize patient care.

CNA claims to be supporting practicing registered nurses, but in reality they are simply encouraging militant behavior and putting patients at risk--those very same patients they say they are protecting. Doesn’t make much sense, does it?

SUSAN ODEGAARD TURNER, RN, Thousand Oaks