Voices From the Picket Lines

For the county nurses on the picket lines Tuesday, the issues of the strike extended beyond money. Nurses who picketed County-USC Medical Center voiced a range of complaints about their working conditions and patient care at the sprawling public medical complex in Boyle Heights that includes four separate hospitals. As their specialties varied, so did their concerns:

Marilyn Lambert, works in neurology ward of General Hospital

“You don’t have time to deal with a patient’s . . . personal problems of any sort. . . . You barely have time to make sure they get their medication and their tests.”

Irma Viveros, works in General Hospital’s outpatient department

“I thought about leaving, but I like it here and I think I’m filling a special need because I speak Spanish and I think I am able to help patients here for that reason.”

Sylvia Quinteros, works in emergency room at Pediatrics Pavilion

“I heard that during the last strike a brand new nurse was floated (moved) up to the cardiac intensive care unit. . . . I didn’t want that to happen to me.”

Salome Dorairaj, works at General Hospital’s outpatient clinic

She says clinic nurses do not get paid as much as nurses working on the hospital wards “even though our patients are often just as sick. They fall to the ground in seizures or diabetic comas.”