The us-too movement

From Santa Monica Daily Press: Local nurses rallied outside of a Santa Monica COVID-19 testing site Tuesday to demand timely access to testing after UCLA officials recently announced a plan to test all students, faculty and staff but not its healthcare workers. The registered nurses voiced their displeasure with the university and its policies at a press conference while residents drove up to receive COVID tests of their own, which is a luxury that is not readily available to registered nurses, according to members of the California Nurses Association.

People who visit UCLA’s campus at least once a week, except for those who work for UCLA Health, will have to schedule weekly COVID-19 tests, according to an Oct. 22 campuswide email from Michael Beck, the administrative vice chancellor, Monroe Gorden Jr., the vice chancellor for student affairs and Michael Levine, the vice chancellor for academic personnel. The testing is mandatory for students, faculty and staff who regularly visit campus for classes and work or live in university housing. And it’s been recommended that students living near campus who are not subject to mandatory testing get tested weekly anyway.

“In the new policy, should a campus member test positive – isolation and contact tracing protocols will be implemented immediately. Unfortunately, this new policy excludes UCLA healthcare workers such as me,” said Paul Ksendz, registered nurse intensive care unit.

“While we approve UCLA’s efforts to push forward a robust contact tracing program on the campus site and an accessible testing program for campus members, as registered nurses we are appalled by the university’s position to exclude UCLA Healthcare workers,” and implement a similar plan on its hospital campuses, Ksendz added as he critiqued the university’s failure to implement tracking techniques and the fact workers are still having to recycle personal protective equipment...

Full story at https://www.smdp.com/ucla-health-nurses-demand-testing-resources/198608