No Tears Over State Nurse Ousters

"This house cleaning of the CBRN may be long overdue," Underdown e-mailed TTLA yesterday. "The Independent Investigations Group at the Center for Inquiry has been battling the nursing board for over 4 years to remove pseudo-science from the California nursing's continuing education system."

CFI'ers say they first sought to assist the CBRN; to help that body understand that some of the courses in the nurses' catalogs didn't fit the scientific rigor that the Board's own standards demand. After failing to make progress in this advocacy role, the CFI decided, essentially, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

So on April 5, 2009, on a Sunday mid-morning that's church time for some, and brunch time for others, the CFI hosted a program titled, "Feng Shui for Home Care Providers."

The presentation included all manner of the absurd, from provocateur Underdown in a white shirt stained with fake theatrical blood, talking about using entrails in order to divine illness; to a section devoted to the importance of a made-up word that organizers said they couldn't find a meaning for in any language; to the feng shui portion from the title, during which a demonstration purported to show that by following those principles, a nurse would wind up physically separated from a patient, stuck on the opposite side of a hospital room.

According to the CFI, all of the above had been approved for continuing education credit. That approval was then rescinded in a letter dated March 27. Underdown and company believe the rescinding came after the CFI started publicizing the course -- which was done in a manner making the group's disdain for the Board clear.

Underdown, previously mentioned in this blog here and here -- plus here in this vintage OC Weekly cover story -- added this to his email:

"For over 4 years, the former Board and staff have obstinately refused to examine shoddy continuing education standards for California nurses."

And then he pasted these words from Tuesday's L.A. Times:

"When Ruth Ann Terry and her assistant executive officer, Heidi Goodman, say in their an e-mail to all board staff,

"'Ruth and I are aware of the grim picture painted by this article,'" they wrote, "'however, the board members, managers and supervisors know that you work very hard to carry out the mission of the board to protect the healthcare consumers in California and we appreciate all that you do.'"

"I have to laugh," Underdown's email concluded. "The classes being taught to professional nurses are well outside the world of acceptable science. The new board better take a hard look at more than just disciplinary issues. There are fundamental problems with what nurses are being taught about science and how the body functions."

More on this topic to come -- TTLA has a file to get through with photos, video, a letter, and various interviews with April 5 attendees.

Pictured above -- a blank copy of the certificate that "CFICare (California Foundation for Institutional Care)" planned to give to nurses who completed the course. By the way, the CFICare logo -- it looks from afar like a sun with solar flare lines radiating out. Up close, it's sperm, not rays, bearing down on an egg, not from a star. Plus, directly above, a photo from the would-be course.

Images courtesy Center for Inquiry - Los Angeles