Nursing Facts

Nurses on horseback delivered babies in the Kentucky mountains. With no roads, they forded rivers in the dark. Mountain children were told nurses carried babies in their saddlebags. A new baby usually arrived soon after a nurse's visit. In their first 1,000 births, not one mother died. The nation lost more than 5 mothers in every 1,000. The horses are gone now. Nurse-midwives are still there.

Maria Gatchalian spent 30 years as a NICU nurse at Kaiser Permanente, repeatedly reporting unsafe staffing and patient safety failures. In 2019, Kaiser fired her - citing a photo of her with bare feet resting on an incubator during a break. A jury found the photo was a pretext. The real reason was the reports. They awarded her $41.49 million.

Nancy Valla, Dignity Health's Chief Nursing Officer, reported expired anesthesia machines, outdated defibrillators, and unsterilized surgical instruments at her hospital. Her reward: being replaced while on medical leave. A California jury awarded her $27.5 million.