Governor Schwarzenegger has replaced most members of a state board that monitors 350,000 registered nurses in California. He did so a day after an investigation by the Los Angeles Times and non-profit news organization ProPublica.
The story revealed that nurses accused of negligent, sometimes illegal conduct stayed on the job for years. Because it took years to investigate alleged misconduct, the governor replaced six of seven members of California's Board of Registered Nursing. The board allowed nurses to work during investigations that lasted, on average, three and-a-half years.
Some of those nurses had histories of negligence, incompetence, violence, drug theft and abuse and multiple criminal convictions.
"The governor made it perfectly clear that performance is not acceptable and it is not acceptable for one more day," says Vicky Bradshaw, secretary of Labor and Workforce Developmental Agency.
Bradshaw said the governor charged the new board members with an urgent duty.
"We want to see change and we want to see it now," she says.
Bradshaw said the new board would scrutinize its staff's performance - including that of Ruth Ann Terry, the board's executive director for the last 15 years.
