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Nurses Face Unique Workplace Challenges

Nurses have a detailed game plan for each patient in their care--reducing pain, monitoring stats, performing vital procedures.... But what happens when things don't go as planned? When a nurse is physically assaulted on the job or contracts a possibly deadly virus because the proper mask wasn't available.

"Hospitals need to step-up their risk management protocols in order to help nurses face the challenges inherent in their profession," says Workers' Compensation attorney Sherry Grant, a partner in the law firm of Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton & Goldstein. Grant has decades of experience representing nurses in any number of settings--both public and private.

"Nurses' associations are working diligently to ensure the well-being of their members, but until better safeguards are in place, nurses will continue to work in conditions that are often less than favorable."

In a recent survey of more than 3,000 emergency room nurses conducted by the Emergency Nurses Association, nurses reported being spit on, hit, pushed, shoved, scratched or kicked while on duty. One in four nurses was assaulted more than 20 times in the past three years while on duty.

California nurses are facing another issue head on--the need for enhanced swine flu protection. The issue came into sharp focus with the death from swine flu of a nurse who worked in a Sacramento hospital. In addition, there are allegations that the firing of a University of San Francisco nurse was related to her reporting of unsafe patient care involving swine flu at the facility.

"It's clear that nurses are on the front lines of patient care, and for them to do their job effectively, they need to have a safe work environment," says Grant. "When you combine these worse-case scenarios of assault and exposure to infection with the fact that workers' compensation laws are constantly changing, it's clear that nurses need our help.

"We have been fighting for the rights of workers injured on and off the job for more than 25 years. Because we understand how important it is for injured workers to know their rights and options, we work very closely with our clients to ensure the full range of benefits."