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CONTINUED FROM PAGE A:7
with the elevated cost of living.
Disturbingly enough, the CCH
feels that it is only necessary to of-
fer many of these nurses (my wife
included) a "comparable" position
to the work load they had before,
16-24 hours a week with a $13 an
hour cut in pay.
These inadequate part-time
positions would require these
nurses to pay ALL of their health
care premiums, or roughly $800 a
month in our case ... not to men-
tion the fact that we would begin
incurring child care costs as well
because like many others we have
structured our working sched-
ules around this program. For
the nurses lucky enough to have
seniority, there is the possibility
that they will bump other nurses
off the rotation completely, a fact
that you simply gloss over in your
"Opinion."
So needless to say, my wife
and many other skilled and highly
trained nurses will once again
be traveling off Cape filling open
positions in other health care
markets. Time willtell, the cost
of recruiting and training replace-
ment nurses willfar outweigh
this knee-jerk reaction to save a
buck today, and you and many
others will lose this valuable local
asset.
Unfortunately, you and the
Cape Cod Hospital's "Fuzzy Math"
simply does not add up ... a Mas-
sachusetts nursing shortage plus
layoffs of qualified RNs at Cape
Cod Hospital does not equate to
fiscal responsibility, it equates to
stupidity.
Seth Johnson
West Yarmouth
Where'd Gauvin get his
info?
Unfortunately you are getting in-
formation incorrectly from sources
other than from nurses at Cape
Cod Hospital. I have been a nurse
for 12 years working weekends,
weekdays, nights, evenings holi-
days, double shifts, etc.
I have worked other hospitals
where they have always offered
weekend incentives. These nurses
dedicate every weekend to our ail-
ing patients because they choose
to in order to be able to provide
for their families during the week.
The hospital created this weekend
position to fit into these nurses
lifestyles and also because they
didn't have nurses to work.
Not only do 60 of them dedicate
every weekend but they also pick
up shifts during the week due to
a nursing shortage crisis at Cape
Cod Hospital.
Stop beating us up.
You have no idea what is in-
volved in being a nurse. How dare
you begin your article with a fine
even thinkinga nurse would hurt
a patient voluntarily via his or her
IV or not giving a patient a bed-
pan. That is inhumane and even
the thought brought me to tears
because I would never intention-
ally hurt anyone. By making your
ignorant statementsyou are per-
sonally attacking each and every
one of us.
Thank God we have a huge sup-
port from our patients, doctors,
families, fellow nurses and our
union. If you want to ever say any-
one would put a patient isjeop-
ardy look to our administration
keeping the patients at risk by
keeping us short staffedVor years.
How dare you compare us to re-
tail workers, lodging workers, etc.
Youknow as well as I thesejobs
are tough but to be a nurse you
must have a degree, pass nursing
boards, apply for ajob, start at the
lowest pay step, etc.
I make $32/hr because I earned
it. I have two degrees and many
credits towards my masters de-
gree. I have a $2,100/mo mortgage,
car payment, utility billsjust like
everyone else in the world. It's not
about the money for these week-
end nurses ... they are so sick of
people saying it. They don't just
work weekends.
They are mothers and fathers
fulltime, some single parents who
loved the profession of nursing
so much the y got a degree and
applied for a weekend position at
Cape Cod Hospital. The hospital
provided this opportunity for 10-
plus years now with other hospi-
tals doing the same. These nurse
are not as you say "off" 5 days
a week ... they are not sunning
themselves Mon-Fri in the Baha-
mas or skiing the Alps...
Mr. Gauvin, if you would like to
spend a day in our shoes please
make arrangements with the
hospital and I would be happy
to show you the ropes of nurs-
ing. Trust me you would be blown
away by what it entails.
Susan Storie
RN, Cape Cod Hospital
Hyannis
Hospital's shortsighted on
nursing needs
It appears to me as an RN who
has practiced for 34 years, with
longtime involvement in La-
bor/Management dealings, that
has seen just about every tactic
from an endless list of manage-
ment teams I have dealt with at
Martha's Vineyard Hospital, that
the current situation at Cape Cod
Hospital is just another high-
level scheme to get the Cape Cod
Hospital MNA Bargaining Unit
off-point during their ongoing con-
tract negotiations.
The Cape Cod Hospital's MNA
Bargaining Unit has made safe
staffing the pivotal issue in their
present negotiations in an attempt
to get staffing levels increased at
Cape Cod Hospital to the level
of four patients per R.N. that the
Massachusetts Nurses Associa-
tion's H. 2663 bill presently in the
Massachusetts Legislature is try-
ing to gain for all Commonwealth
citizens.
For me as an R.N., this is a no-
brainer! If I have 60 minutes in an
hour and have eight patients to
care for, then I only have an aver-
age of 7 1/2 minutes per patient
per hour to get to and from their
rooms, provide them with the
necessary nursing care for their
specific diagnosis, document all
care and assessments, administer
and document medications, teach
patients and families about in-hos-
pital and post-discharge care and
medications, provide nourishment,
and let's not forget the emotional
support that goes so far in a prop-
er healing environment, etc.
If you're following me, wouldn't
you as a patient get more care/at-
tention and be safer if I the RN
had four patients to care for? /
would have twice as much time
to meet your needs! Twice as
much time to make sure you are
safe, when you are most vulner-
able. Studies have proven the last
statements to be correct and you
can find some of these studies at
www.massnurses.org/safe_care/
index.htm. Day care centers set
ratios of staff to children! Even
veterinarian clinics do! Why don't
hospitals? Please call your state
rep and senator and ask them to
support H. 2663.
I personally think that the man-
agement team at Cape Cod Hos-
pital has laid off these 60 Weekend
Package R.N.s in an attempt to
distract the ongoing efforts of the
MNA to improve staffing at Cape
Cod Hospital, an improvement
that is warranted. I think they feel
that MNA's efforts will now be put
into salvaging these jobs/positions
and hopefully they will back off of
their safe staffing proposals that
have dominated the negotiating
sessions. Well, I think they are
wrong!
The Cape Cod Hospital man-
agement has done more in the last
two weeks to energize, unify, and
mobilize the R.N.s at Cape Cod
Hospital than any union organizer
could have done! Mr.Abbott, you
have awakened a sleeping giant
and that giant has 20,000+ sis-
ters and brothers watching its
back. It also has the support of a
concerned public that depends on
these R.N.s to provide them with
safe care when they are in Cape
Cod Hospital. There is no way you
could have improved your staffing
levels by eliminating these posi-
tions!
These nurses work this
schedule because it meets the
needs of their families and their
lifestyles. They cannot just slide
into some vacant position that
CCH has available, and from what
I hear there are quite a few vacant
RN positions. This raises another
question: How can you have a
layoff of R.N.s when you don't have
enough R.N.s to fill allyour bud-
geted positions?
If I were a non-Cape Cod Health-
care, Inc. hospitalin the area
-Jordan Hospital, South Coast
Hospital, and/or Martha's Vine-
yard Hospital -1would be seri-
ously thinking... why don't we offer
a similar weekend package at our
hospital and attract these 60 R.N.s
that Cape Cod Hospital thinks
they don't need! What a find these
experienced R.N.s would be for
these other hospitals!
Mr.Abbott, don't lose these
dedicated nurses! Do the right
thing for the RNs, the patients,
and your community and rescind
the weekend package layoffs.
Rick Lambos, R.N.
Edgartown
Visions at and from a
bridge
This letter is for the men who
work so hard and so gallantly on
the Bourne Bridge every day in
all sorts of weather conditions. I
recently drove over the Bourne
Bridge and I saw the men slaving
away on it, but I will never forget
the lone man who was way up in a
bucket on a hydraulic lift and he
was literally hanging over to the
right of the bridge, which over-
looked the Cape Cod Canal.
This one man was dangling
over the frozen canal hundreds of
feet and I was so impressed and
inspired by his skill, determination
and most of all, courage to do this
deadly job and it did not bother
him in the least. I salute the men
who work on the Bourne Bridge
and the brave and dedicated
construction workers who build
America's infrastructure.
That man in his bucket can see
clear across America on any given
day.He can see Mount Rushmore
in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
He can see the Gateway Arch in
St. Louis. He can see the farmers
riding on their green John Deere
tractors plowing their crops in
Minnesota.
How is that possible, you may
ask. That man in his bucket is a gi-
ant, like Paul Bunyan before him,
and he can see 3.000 miles across
America because he believes in
America's endless potential and its
promise for an even better tomor-
row.
Those who doubt that he can
see 3,000 miles across America
have allowed cynicism to make
them narrow-minded and small-
hearted.
Scott Wolfe
Mashpee
Agrees about Bush, but
for different reasons
I read Richard Elrick's article
about President Bush being above
the law.
Richard and I have no use for
Bush but for entirely different
reasons.
Bush was not exactly lucky to
have:
1. 9/11
2. French people making so
much money off the Oil for Food
program in Iraq that Chirac de-
cided Sadam was okay.
3. Hurricanes
4. Russians selling munitions to
Iraq for big profits.
5. The son of United Nations
President making a killing off the
Oil for Food program and telling
his dad to lay off.
The above isjust a partial list.
I'd rather have a few insurgents
in the streets of Iraq than have
Saddam thumbing his nose at the
world, scaring all decent people to
death. A little reasonable profes-
sional precaution to keep terror-
ists out of the U.S. doesn't bother
me.
Now we come to why I de-
spise Bush. Clinton was elected
president with Chinese donation
money.The Chinese received many
favors under Clinton. American
business found that it could make
big money importing Chinese
goods. They later found that they
could shut down their U.S. plants,
build plants in China and make
even more money. This has gone
on full force on Bush's watch.
Bush must be too beholden to
these business interests to slow
down and stop this killer trend. We
are now the brokest nations ever
conceived on the face of the earth
with a $700,000 billion negative
balance of trade and a president
who hasn't go the guts to do any-
thing about it.
Conrad Wesselhoeft '
Barnstable (Summers) !
A Game of Charettes
"Dad! Mom! I'm home from
school!" ,:
"What did you learn today, our
handsome young one?"
"That Brockton-by-the-Seacivics ¦
is the greatest."
"Where's that?"
"Boy, you guys aren't cool. Right •
here."
"They've moved Brockton?"
"C'mon. That' s not by the
ocean." '.
"We see." '
.
"We 're new. New thoughts. !
Things." I
"Like what?" 1
"Charettes!" ;
"Char what?"
"CHARETTE! We studied them
in Councilor Chirigotis ' Patriot
column." ;
"But that's a dead French word
for vehicle."
"What?"
"The French killed it in the 18th
Century."
"Why?"
"Wasn't big enough."
"Y'a mean like usherette?"
"Eggzactly."
"What happened to charette?"
"It got upgraded to chariot."
"Wow! A triumphal car. A sun
god, maybe."
"Something like that. Could be a
tank ... a hearse."
"Mr. Chirigotis quotes cool things
like collaborative planning... talent
harnessing ...
transforming whole villages."
"Sounds like a think tank."
"Think what?"
"Brainstorming."
"Never heard that one either."
"OK let'stry another way. Allthis
unelected palaver means a bigger
and better
Brockton-by-the-Sea?"
"Yougot it! Like you can now ride
in our New School Super's bus with
those thoughts."
"Wonder what Montesquieu and
Voltaire think about such develop-
ments?"
"They play charettes too?"
"No,onlypoverty stricken Parisian
architectural students did. In early
18th Century,
theylugged their drawingsaround
in one like a tumbrel."
"Cool."
Peter Doiron
Barnstable Village
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P.O. BOX 1208
HYANNIS, MA 02601
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editor
CONTINUED FROM PAGE B:1
fishermen that the gate was
locked. '
It wasn't, Kalweit said,
albeit the latch was latched
and somebody evidently
"thought" it was locked, a
nuisance for anyone trying
to use the right of way.
Nickerson reported an
anecdotal story in October
wherein a man and his two
daughters nearly lost a day
of clamming because they
were not aware of the right
of way and were too timid to
take the unsigned path.
"Apparently with develop-
ment, a lot of these paths
are being lost. Private own-
ers put plantings, boulders
etc., to block the paths.
Citizens figuring that they
were only allowed to use
these paths at the indul-
gence of the owner of prop-
erty adjacent to or across
whose property the path
runs (often not realizing
that these paths are deeded
to the public for access to
the water) are intimidated
and stop using them. Then
within a few years people
forget about the paths, and
they are lost," Nickerson
said.
The importance of
Claussen's right of way to
beachgoers and shellfisher-
men is an impassable rock-
and brush-strewn area of
waterfront at high tide that
leaves Claussen's path as
the option passage.
Houghton said it is "a
matter of working with
the neighbors" sayingthat
"you can't overburden an
easement. We're trying to
find the right wording -we
haven't figured it out exactly
- and we're tryingto work
with neighbors."
The point is, there was a
simple sign erected near the
gate previously. All it said
was "Town Way to Water" or
similar words but, Nickerson
i
claims, Houghton evidently
ordered it taken down.
"Somebody took it down
and then somebody else
carted it away," Claussen
said.
Kalweit said there was
once a "private property"
sign on the door to evidently
discourage passage. He said
the town attorney's office
said it couldn't be removed
by the town because the
door was private prop-
erty.The sign was elimi-
nated anyway by somebody,
Claussen said.
Kalweit said he thinks
there is a neighborly dis-
pute, albeit Houghton said
he wouldn't classify it as
that. Kalweit concurred
the sign formerly there was
taken away because the
town attorney's office said it
shouldn't be there.
Claussen, Barnstable
County's Register of Pro-
bate, said had he known the
town would treat his gift
this way, he could have sold
the right of way to the cur-
rent owner for profit. But he
said he was more interested
in gifting it to the public
since he had used it for
many years before he gave
up boating.
To Claussen, whose grand-
father, then his parents and
mother and himself always
allowed public access, it
doesn't make sense for the
town not to mark the way to
water.
Even the town attorney's
office generally agrees since
its Web site notes:
"We try to be as helpful as
we can. But people tend to
forget that when their indi-
vidualinterests conflict with
the interests of the public,
we side with the interests of
the public."
So, Claussen asks, why is
the town dragging its feet
over a sign representing
the obvious interests of the
public?
t
y
Cotuit 'ease'ment
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