Health Care Reform – Joe Paduda was blogging the Democratic candidates’ positions on health care all last week. He offers a handy summary of where candidates stand on issues related to health care and offers his own prescription for the basics in health care reform. And in today’s post, he tells us what voters want in health care.
Nursing safety – Massachusetts nurses are seeking stronger protection against on-the-job violence. Fifty percent of the nurses responding to a 2004 Massachusetts Nurses Association survey reported being punched at least once in the previous two years. Many say the problems are getting worse, and are looking to the state legislature to extend protections. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would require hospitals to conduct an annual violence risk assessment and violence prevention plans.
Blog discovery – We are happy to see that Claire Wilkinson of the Insurance Information Institute is blogging at Terms and Conditions. Her most recent post (as of this writing) is a notice about a carrier evaluation survey conducted by Willis on performance metrics.
And speaking of nurses as we have today, it’s a good day to do a shout-out to Emergiblog, a nursing blog by Kim, a San Francisco-based nurse who deals with nursing-related issues and who often manages to infuse humor and style in her presentation. She also launched Change of Shift, a carnival for blogging nurses.
Falls in construction – rawblogXport reminds us of the heavy toll that falls take, particularly in construction. See our prior post on Falls and human fall traps: Fatalities in the construction industry.
Wrongful terminations – an in-house safety inspector was awarded $2 million in back pay, punitive damages and what the jury called “aggravation, inconvenience, humiliation, embarrassment and loss of dignity.” He was formerly employed at a mine owned by Massey Energy Co. and was fired after reporting safety problems at the mine to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. And in New Jersey, a forklift operator for Weyerhauser Company won an award of more than $600,000 because he was fired within two months of his having been injured on the job. Most states don’t take kindly to retaliatory firings. Jurors seem to like them even less.
Briefs

• Specialty Insurance Blog offers some interesting links on the history of insurance.
• Thoughts from a Management Lawyer reminds us about the need to make summer jobs safe for young workers.
• Healthbolt offers a map of The State of the Union’s Fat – Colorado is the leanest state, followed by Massachusetts.