RN
addresses need for federal patients' bill of rights legislation at
Democratic Convention
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Mary Bono (R-CA) with ANA-PAC Chair Mary L. Behrens,
MSN, RN, at the Republican National Convention in
Philadelphia. The ANA co-hosted a welcome reception and dinner
for convention delegates and invited guests and hosted a
luncheon in honor of nurse delegates. Bono, Sen. Jim Jeffords
(R-VA), and Reps. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Connie Morella
(R-MD) discussed key health care issues in
Congress. |
A registered nurse was invited to share a frontline perspective
regarding the need for federal patients' bill of rights legislation
at the Democratic National Convention in August. Missouri Nurses
Association member Doug Bouldin, RN, MSN, CS, FNP, a family nurse
practitioner at a clinic in Troy, MO, was asked by Al Gore's
presidential campaign to participate in an "American Dialogue"
health care panel discussion, which was televised nationally from
the convention headquarters in Los Angeles on Aug. 16. Bouldin
recalls that he was in charge of the evening shift at St. John's
Mercy Hospital in suburban St. Louis about four years ago when a car
drove up to the ambulance entrance carrying a man who had already
gone into full cardiac arrest. As an emergency room team attempted
to resuscitate him, the man's wife explained that her husband had
been having chest pains, but when they called their health care
plan, they were told that they would only receive insurance coverage
at a hospital that was 50 miles from home. So they attempted to
drive to the facility. "About half way there, the man suddenly went
into cardiac arrest," Bouldin related. "But it was too late. He was
already dead when he arrived."
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ANA-PAC Chair Mary L. Behrens, MSN, RN, with Doug
Bouldin, MSN, RN, CS, FNP, and ANA President Mary E. Foley,
MS, RN, at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, Rep.
Lois Capps (D-CA), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Gerrie
Schipske (D-CA), an NP running for Congress, and Bouldin spoke
at a luncheon hosted by the ANA. ANA also co-sponsored an
event to highlight women candidates running for federal
office. |
After failing to resuscitate the man, Bouldin and the physician
went out to inform his wife. And her first response was, "Why did
they tell us to drive so far?" Bouldin said that passage of
patients' bill of rights legislation in Missouri in 1997 put an end
to similar "HMO horror stories" in his state, but that the Missouri
measure is not enough. "We need to model federal legislation after
what Missouri now has in place."
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