GOP lawmaker slammed for saying rural nurses don't deserve breaks because they just sit around and '

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Raw Story

GOP lawmaker slammed for saying rural nurses don’t deserve breaks because they just sit around and ‘play cards’
MATTHEW CHAPMAN
19 APR 2019 AT 21:41 ET



A GOP state lawmaker in Washington is being sharply condemned for implying that nurses in rural hospitals don’t need new labor protections because they probably just sit around and “play cards.”

State Sen. Maureen Walsh made the comments at the debate of a bill to give mandatory rest breaks to nurses. Her proposed amendment would exempt small hospitals with 25 or fewer beds from the new rules, and offered as an explanation that she doesn’t think nurses in these hospitals work as hard as nurses in larger facilities.

“I’m in an underserved area,” she said, “and all we’re doing is making it more difficult to be served. I understand helping with employees and making sure that we have rest breaks and things like that, but I also understand that we need to care for patients, first and foremost.”

“And by putting these types of mandates on a critical access hospital that literally serves a handful of individuals — I would submit to you that those nurses probably do get breaks. They probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day,” she continued.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/gop-lawmaker-slammed-saying-rural-nurses-dont-deserve-breaks-just-sit-around-play-cards/?utm_source=push_notifications

[cstanleytech]

1. The stupid is strong with this one.

[ck4829]

46. Indeed

[Mr.Bill]

2. I am married to a retired RN, and my daughter is an RN/Administrator.

They both worked/work in rural hospitals.My daughter is the fourth generation of nurses in her family. This Washington Senator has no idea who and what she is fucking with. She has just destroyed her political career.

[ck4829]

47. Hopefully so

[Haggis for Breakfast]

55. She's a first term state repuke from Walla Walla.

Enjoy it, Maureen, it will be your last term.

Ignorant people shouldn't be allowed to speak out loud.

[forgotmylogin]

3. She sounds like a person who has no medical personnel in her family.

I don't know any nurse who wouldn't throw aside their macaroni and cheese on a lunch break to run and help someone or save their life if they were needed. I get the feeling Walsh is an entitled person who was once made to wait and believed those nurses conversing at the station and possibly laughing and making the best of their long shift were pointedly ignoring her. I've been in enough ERs to know you don't just walk up and flag someone down like they're a waiter at Denny's unless something is bleeding or on fire or flatlining. If someone at a desk typing seems to ignore you and not make eye contact, it's because they are doing something very important they need to finish. Sometimes they are trying to discharge patients as quickly as possible to make room for more patients and you needing more ice is not a life or death matter, lady.

This is exactly why these employees need protection. Hospitals can get so busy and are staffed right at the line of forecasted patient population to save money, so it's common that workers never get time to eat. Caregivers who don't have breaks to stop thinking about keeping people alive for a few minutes a day are more likely to make mistakes or injure themselves in a rush.

[paleotn]

20. Exactly

When my wife practiced in a hospital getting to eat sitting down was a luxury rarely experienced. This idiot has been watching far too many medical dramas on thu TV. The real world doesn’t work like that.

[ck4829]

29. Called it

[0rganism]

31. she sounds like a person who plays a lot of cards on the job

I wonder if she runs a gambling ring out of her office

[Leghorn21]

51. Oh, +++!!!

[Xipe Totec]

4. One word - Pendeja.

A word reserved for the abysmally stupid.

[ck4829]

41. +1

[demigoddess]

59. or cochon, as I learned in my youth.

[kimbutgar]

5. shes forgotten her humanity because she's owned by the corporate hospital industry

She just gave her an opponent a crudgel to use against her.

Heartless

[ck4829]

45. Bingo

[Quackers]

6. Her logic makes no sense.

Smaller hospitals have a smaller staff. The amount of nurses and care is proportional to the size and demand of the community they serve.

[ck4829]

42. As you know, logic has a liberal bias though

[keithbvadu2]

7. How many hours a month is she attending Congress?

How many hours a month is she attending Congress?

[ck4829]

30. Good question

[Cousin Dupree]

8. I am a nurse. I find her remarks very hostile and offensive. She's got issues with nurses.

[ck4829]

40. Indeed, very serious issues

[procon]

9. Next time she finds herself needing a nurse

maybe that professional will remind her that nursing is like a calling. Most of us don't choose that occupation to get rich, but we still except to get equal treatment under the law.

The work requires the same years of education, training and licensing regardless of where you work. In fact, the work is more onerous and labor intensive in a smaller facility that lacks the facilities and ancillary staff that provide specialized services offered in large, full service hospitals.

Don't be petty and cheat nurses out of their well earned wages and bennefts. Those nurses in small hospitals might have a few extra minutes to sit and read a book with a sick child, or play a hand of cards with a lonely senior, but that's all part of what being a good nurse means.

[ck4829]

48. She can't understand that

[Wounded Bear]

10. Yeah, that's pretty much what fire fighters do, too...

well, at least until someone's house goes up in flames.

[yellowcanine]

14. When they are not cleaning and repairing equipment, training etc.

This is the same kind of mentality that says teachers only work when they are actually in front of a class, never mind making lesson plans, grading papers, and attending mandatory faculty meetings, etc.

[Wounded Bear]

15. Perhaps you missed the irony in my post...

[ck4829]

39. LOL

[Doreen]

11. What a horrible person.

Any nurses I have known or met usually do not get breaks. No matter how good their shoes are they still go home with sore feet.

I think this horrible lady should do a nurses work for a full month and see that she has no clue what she is talking about. I bet she wouldn't survive a whole week.

Thank you to all of our nurses out there who work tirelessly to help those who are unable or to unhealthy to care for ourselves either temporarily or permanently.

[area51]

18. +1

I hope Maureen Walsh gets voted out of office ASAP.

[ck4829]

38. Seconded

[Paladin]

12. Her brain and her soul are "underserved areas" as well. (nt)

[BlueMTexpat]

13. Why is anyone surprised?

This particular piece of scum is an R.

[McCamy Taylor]

16. Ms. Walsh, American respect nurse way more than they do corporate shills

like you.

[Tess49]

17. She was taken to the wood shed by posters on facebook for these comments. I wish I knew how to

import memes. Hilarious stuff.

[SCantiGOP]

19. Memes are exploding about this

My daughter graduates in May with her BS in Nursing. My favorite:

—Sen. Walsh, what is your pain level on a scale of 1-10?
—A nine
—I’m sorry, I don’t have any nines, go fish.

[Tess49]

24. Or the one where the trauma room looks like a crime scene. Post: Feeling cute, might play

cards, idk.

[Tess49]

25. By the way, congrats to your daughter!

[Bradical79]

21. If they get breaks like she says

Then there's no reason for her exemption.

[Vinca]

22. It's as if they can't help themselves from being assholes.

[rurallib]

23. puglicans are all about making up stories to denigrate people they don't like

[Salviati]

26. They just assume that everyone else is as horrible as they are.

That everyone else wishes as much harm on them, as they wish on everyone else.

It must be tiring to live a life full of so much fear and hate.

[ck4829]

49. They really do

[ck4829]

28. +1

[ck4829]

27. Wow, what a creep she is

[Maxheader]

32. She has that stupid gene...

typical of wingers...Bitch should have been around n. central ks last year during
the flu epidemic...

[ck4829]

50. Indeed

[Bengus81]

33. So...when she drags her overweight ass into a hospital with severe chest pains..........

One can only hope they tell her it will be 20-30 minutes or so and show her the full house their holding.

[ck4829]

43. LOL

[Mr.Bill]

65. The fact is, if she were admitted to a hospital or other care facility,

even if the staff were aware of her comments, she would receive the same level of care as anyone else. This is due to the professionalism of the medical industry. Something a politician would not be familiar with.

[Aristus]

34. My father was an RN, and his mother was an LPN.

And even if they weren't, I've worked with enough nurses in my medical career to have developed, independent of any family connection, immense respect for the nursing profession.

As stated above, I get the feeling she's a rich-bitch who's still holding a grudge because once, when she was in a hospital, the entire nursing staff failed to come running and grovel at her feet when she snapped her fingers for a turkey sandwich.

[Mc Mike]

35. Repugs are the party of rural America, they represent Real Americans.

[ck4829]

37. Yeah, what happened to that?

[Mc Mike]

57. Flush that idea down the memory hole, they'll be along with a plumber's helper when they need it

later.

[marble falls]

36. Having lived in two small under 2,000 population, in Iowa and Nebraska ...

one with the only hospital in the county, I can tell you nurses were vital to both towns and they were never playing cards the two times I admitted for pnuemonia.

[whathehell]

52. They "probably" sit around & play cards?

Didn't even bother to investigate?

Typical Anti-Worker Repuke -- Glad she's getting slammed for it.

[Sapient Donkey]

53. If the majority are getting the breaks they need, then this law shouldn't be a problem

since the hospitals already comply. However, for those that don't then it will protect them. I don't think she thought this through. I also suspect (from experience) that if an emergency happened then the vast majority nurses would forgo any mandated breaks while it was happening.

*yes, I am being overly and undeservedly charitable to her in this response.

[blm]

54. Oh. Fvcking. Geez.

.

[Beartracks]

56. How did GOP turn ignorance into a virtue?

And why do Republican voters keep rewarding GOP candidates for dissing the jobs, health, and finances of their fiends, families, and neighbors?

=======

[ck4829]

58. Good question

[Yeehah]

60. You get what you vote for, folks.

I hope working class republican voters come to realize how much republican politicians hate them.

[Shoonra]

61. The hospital nurses I know ....

The hospital nurses I know all work like galley slaves and frequently have to do things that you couldn't pay me enough to do -- deal with bleeding, vomiting, incontinent, or combative patients for a start. I am surprised that so few of them burn out in the first decade. All things considered I am more than willing to cut them some slack with protective labor legislation.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

62. Let me introduce you to our redneck friends in eastern Washington

[Owl]

63. Absolutely a lousy person!

[akraven]

64. Is she literally out of her mind?

My sis-in-law AND her mom were rural nurses in ALASKA and air transportation isn't always available. The two saved many, many lives - not just through medical care, they added on education.

On edit - I've personally seen BOTH of them spend 15 or so hours on a rescue or rehab mission. Tireless. And both are older than me. I'm 64.

[Blue_Tires]

66. Every time some smug hot-take pundit has the nerve to say

it's the Dems who have trouble connecting with "real" Americans, I wonder why stories like this never get any mention...