KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Oregon
should
address
nursing
shortage
O
regon has one of the lowest rates of
hospital beds per capita in the coun-
try. The number of staffed hospital
beds per 1,000 population is about 1.7.
That actually can be good. When there
aren’t too many people in the hospital, the
health system isn’t supporting unnecessary
beds and staff.
The pandemic isn’t one of those times.
The bigger issue, though, has been staffing.
Oregon and the nation already were facing a
nursing shortage before the pandemic. The
burnout and stress caused by the pandemic
made it worse. The vacancy rate for nursing
positions was about 10% in 2020. Hundreds
of nursing positions are open across the state.
Hospitals have been relying on traveling
nurses to pick up some of the slack. They can
make thousands of dollars more than staff
nurses, which only encourages more nurses
to become traveling nurses and follow the
money.
What could Oregon do?
Capacity to train nurses is one prob-
lem. Oregon Health & Science University
got nearly 1,900 applications for its nursing
program and accepted 420 students. The
University of Portland had 2,000 applications
for 260 spots. It’s not just a simple matter of
accepting more students. There also needs to
be faculty and places for clinical placement.
Shouldn’t the Legislature at least discuss if
the state needs to direct more resources at
this problem?
In the short-term, more needs to be done
to help existing nurses. More pay and bene-
fits may not be the right answer or the only
one. Many nurses feel overworked and over-
stressed. Doctors, dentists and physician
assistants can get free counseling through
the Oregon Wellness Program, a nonprofit.
Nurses don’t get access to that, though their
employers may make other alternatives
available. The Oregon Board of Nursing is
scheduled to discuss funding access to it for
nurses later this month.
The state also could make adjustments
to its emergency licensure requirements,
as reported by The Lund Report. It limited
out-of-state nurses to practicing for up to
30 days in critical care units. That could be
broadened, though it may be a touchy subject
during labor disputes. In any case, relying
on nurses to come from out-of-state isn’t a
permanent solution.
You can do something, too. If you are not
vaccinated, please get vaccinated and any
boosters. It can reduce the chances you will
get COVID-19 and the severity when you do.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily that
of the East Oregonian.
LETTERS
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters
of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
individual services and products or letters that
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters
must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published.
Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
Buying and selling
J.D.
SMITH
FROM THE HEADWATERS
OF DRY CREEK
H
ere’s hoping all of you readers
have survived the holidays, with
all the gatherings and the uncom-
fortable doubts about whether your Uncle
Ferd really liked your gift to him of nose
hair scissors or was just pretending to be
overjoyed.
I have always enjoyed giving things
to other people, more so than receiving
things, because I feel I have been very
lucky in this life and am surrounded by
way more stuff than I need. For instance,
I own two pairs of White’s packer boots
that I have worn and had rebuilt for 50
years. When I look at them I feel rich.
Rampant consumerism at this time of
year seems to be the American way, and
that is OK by me. If buying stuff excites
you, have at it. What does bother me,
though, is what I call micro-greed, the
tendency in our society for some folks to
squeeze more profit from a transaction
than is merited. The following two exam-
ples illustrate my feelings.
One: When my dad died 20 years
ago I went to Sturgis, South Dakota, and
brought my mom and everything she
continued to own back here into Wheats-
ville in the back of one 1986 Toyota
pickup. We rented an unfurnished apart-
ment for her six blocks from our house
then went about attempting to furnish
it cheaply, since neither she nor I were
actually rich.
It was early fall at a garage/yard/
driveway sale somewhere on Pendleton’s
North Hill when I located a serviceable
wooden kitchen table and two chairs
for $20. There was a little burn on the
corner of the table where someone, some-
time, had forgotten a cigarette. I knew
my Mom would not care and was about
to close the deal when a 50-something
woman elbowed me aside and said she
would give the seller $25 because her
daughter was about to go to college and
really needed a table where she could
study. Rather than get into a price war, I
deferred to the woman and imagined her
daughter studying at the table.
Two hours later I was totally pooped
out from too many garage sales and
stopped by a large consignment store
that was located where they distill vodka
today. In one of the booths was an iden-
tical table and two chairs, carefully
covered with a checkered tablecloth and
decorated with place settings and water
glasses, 80 bucks. I picked up one corner
of the tablecloth to see the condition of
the tabletop and, luck of the draw, saw the
cigarette burn. A younger woman was
tending the store that day, and I asked her
how long the table had been in inven-
tory. She said it had just come in. I did not
purchase the table and chairs.
Two: I heard this story high in the
central Idaho mountains 50-some years
ago from a fellow who was the manager
of a J.C. Penney Co. store somewhere
near Boise. Since that time the guy has
discovered that he is really a Cherokee
shaman and has left the retail trades for
the more lucrative consulting business.
“One Christmas time I had a super
idea and constructed a large screened
cage with a 4-by-8 sheet of plywood as
its floor. I painted everything red and
drilled maybe 20 holes in the plywood
then attached little Mason jars under-
neath and fashioned a small fairyland
castle at one end of the cage. I labeled
the holes randomly with percentages in
increments of five, from 10 through 40,
and employed one of my son’s pet mice as
the star of the Holiday Mouse Discount
Giveaway.
“Then I took a bunch of merchandise
that wasn’t moving all that well, gathered
it on a few tables and racks around the
cage and marked it up 15% with a sign
saying that these items were eligible for
the discount. The customer would choose
an item from the limited inventory, bring
it to the cashier and ask for the Holiday
Mouse Discount.
“I would be standing by the cage and
opening the little door in the castle where
the mouse lived. The mouse with a little
red ribbon around its neck would run out
onto the plywood, be freaked out by the
noise and lights and run down one of the
holes. That was the discount the customer
would receive.
“Well, the trick is that a mouse will not
run down a hole where a mouse has never
run before, so by dropping a few mouse
turds down all the 10% holes I could
pretty much predict where the mouse was
going to hide and make 5% over normal
retail. I did, however, drop a few mouse
droppings down one 20% hole in the far
corner just because I like to gamble.”
———
J.D. Smith is an accomplished writer
and jack-of-all-trades. He lives in Athena.
A couple of facts need to be pointed
out.
First, Idaho Power does not have the
authority needed to build the power line
at this time, and it can still be denied
the right to build. There is currently a
couple of contested cases in the courts,
and Oregon will not issue the required
certificates until they have been settled,
which means most likely those cases will
go to the Supreme Court. Again with no
certificate, Idaho Power has no authority
to build the line.
Second, the fact is that Idaho Power
is demanding access to the 700 private
properties to do surveying and studies
that they had already done in 2011.
The governments in Umatilla and
Morrow counties don’t seem to care
about their residents but more about
promised tax dollars from this badly
planned project. This for-profit private
corporation has some county, city and
state agencies on its side as it means
dollars to them and the landowners be
damned. Union and Baker counties are
both opposed to the line being built.
I have asked before, why zigzag
across private lands as opposed to a
straight line between Boardman and
Idaho? The main reason, although denied
by B2H, is to avoid all forms of govern-
ment land and the stricter requirements
it would have to meet. It is estimated that
if the line was built in a straight line from
Boardman to Hemmingway, Idaho, it
would cut the 293 mile proposed route
by approximately 50 miles, but to avoid
public and tribal lands, a zigzag route
across private property was selected by
Idaho Power.
I understand that if it doesn’t cross
people’s land, they say what do we care?
Why they should care is if at anytime
this project goes broke, or drops the ball
on any of their pie in the sky promises,
you, the taxpayers, will be on the hook to
cover the costs.
Again I ask people to contact your
county, city and state officials and stop
this theft of private property and the
rights of the owners.
John Harvey
Stanfield
YOUR VIEWS
A couple of facts about
proposed B2H line
The Boardman to Hemingway project
power line, proposed by Idaho Power, is
nothing but a strong arming of the 700
private landowners as the power line
would cut through farms, ranches, forest
lands, Ladd Wildlife Marsh, Morgan
Lake and in front of the Oregon Trail
Center.
It should be noted this project will be
100% on private property in Umatilla
County. Idaho Power also wants to build
new roads and remove anything in its
path while destroying the land, wildlife
habitat and water resources on the same
private properties. Many of these roads
they desire to build or rebuild are outside
the desired route of the power line its self.
Idaho Power claims to be wanting to
work with the 700 private land owners,
all the while threatening the same land-
owners if Idaho Power is not allowed to
enter the private property, prior to being
issued the certificate to build by the state
of Oregon, by taking the owners to court.