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On International Workers Memorial Day, We Honor Our Nursing Colleague Cynthia Barraca Palomata

Cynthia Barraca Palomata, RN, died Oct. 28, 2010 from injuries she sustained when an inmate at the California jail where she worked allegedly faked a seizure and hit her on the head with a lamp when she tried to help him.

Palomata was 55. Born Nov. 28 in Nabas, Aklan in the Philippines, Palomata immigrated to the United States in 1983 after nursing school and worked at a variety of Bay Area hospitals, including San Francisco General Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Oakland, for more than 20 years before she started at the Martinez Detention Facility in 2005.

Her relatives and coworker friends remember Palomata as a caring, humble, gentle person who understood that the important things in life were love of family and to be content with what you had. “She was a very sweet, loving, happy person,” said her younger sister, Cecille Schutzmann-Barraca. “For me, I will miss her companionship, especially when she spends time with just me and our mom – just us three girls talking and laughing.” Greg Montes, an RN who often worked alongside Palomata on their busy 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. shifts, described her as an excellent, empathetic nurse whom her coworkers greatly admired. He remembers she was always willing to lend an extra hand if she had the time, and that she had a quiet strength about her.

“I looked up to her,” said Montes. “Cynthia was very calm. You know, people come upset into the jail. But Cynthia will not react to it or let it affect her doing her job. She was able to deflect their anger and understand that they were angry not at her, but their situation. Usually by the time she was done with their medical screening, they’d be a lot calmer because they knew she wasn’t trying to do anything to them but help them.”

A registered nurse through and through, Palomata believed that her patients deserved quality healthcare just like anyone else, and she never hesitated to advocate for them in her reserved, behind-the scenes manner. In turn, the inmates deeply respected her. Montes said that many inmates always took the time to greet “Nurse Cynthia,” and her sister said that Palomata had mentioned that she was some of the inmates’ favorite nurse. Palomata was so well liked by her patients that Montes said, after her death, the inmates in one wing of the jail presented the nursing staff with a pencil drawing one of them had done in her honor. The sketch depicted the river and tree of life and they had all signed it.

Palomata would have appreciated the artwork. Besides nursing, she also liked to draw, mostly flowers and nature scenes. She also played the piano and the guitar, and gardened, sometimes bringing her orchids into work. She enjoyed going out, shopping, spending time with her family, and practicing her faith, which her family said sustained her during hard times. Palomata was survived by her husband, Gedelfo; her adult son, Earl; her mother, Perla Barraca; her siblings; and other family members.

Moved to action by Cynthia’s tragic death, her fellow nurses and California Nurses Association members began a campaign to enact strong workplace violence prevention measures in California hospitals, as enforced by California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA). These efforts have come to fruition, despite aggressive opposition from the California hospital industry, and California’s mandatory workplace violence regulations, requiring hospitals to have a facility-specific prevention plan, will be fully finalized within the next few months.

And the call for a safer workplace is an ongoing movement. NNU has been fighting for workplace violence protections for years—in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and other states—as well as nationally, calling for a federal OSHA standard. NNU will never stop fighting to win protections in the health and safety arena, including legislation to protect nurses from unsafe staffing levels, Ebola and other infectious diseases, cumulative injuries from patient handling, and even mitigating the harmful effects of surgical plumes

On this day, we remember Cynthia Barraca Palomata, RN, and vow to do all we can to ensure no nurse ever again loses her health, or her own life, in the process of working to heal others. Everywhere we see a danger to nurses, we must act on all fronts to ensure that the highest possible safeguards are in place to protect those who protect their patients from harm.

—Bonnie Castillo, RN, National Director for Health and Safety and the Registered Nurse Response Network for National Nurses United