Before Saiyid Brent stopped in for a free basic health screening in Portland Monday night, his thoughts were on dinner - specifically, comfort food. But that changed after he was examined by a nurse. His prognosis? "Not so well!" he says, with a laugh. "My blood sugar was pretty good, but blood pressure not so great, which is a concern."

Liz Faraci, a nurse with Downeast Community Hospital in Machias, gets ready for patients Monday afternoon at Portland's First Parish Church. The Maine State Nurses Association held free health screenings Monday at the historic church to raise awareness for its efforts to push for an expansion of Medicare to cover all Americans.

One of the country’s largest and most profitable hospital chains has been defeated in its effort to take away its nurses’ sick days, according to the union that mounted nine strikes there over the past two years. “The nurses would’ve come to work sick, and the patients’ health would’ve declined,” said California Nurses Association Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. “Because the nurses would be exposing current patients to the past patients’ illnesses.” While nurses “take the risk of being around very sick people,” DeMoro told Salon, they “are not super-women.”

FREMONT -- Nurses and engineers at Washington Hospital will get pay raises with the approval of two new labor contracts by the board of directors. The hospital's 683 registered nurses represented by the California Nurses Association will get a 1 percent pay raise retroactive to July 1, and another 1 percent raise next July. They will also receive a bonus this month worth 1 percent of their pre-raise pay, and another 1 percent bonus in January.

MANTECA - The California Nurses Association, which contends that Kaiser Permanente is escalating its reduction of patient services in Manteca, will host a community meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday at the First Christian Church, 1125 N. Union Road, Manteca.

Kaiser Manteca nurses are pounding the pavement today at Woodbridge at Del Webb to share with the residents their concerns about the state of health services at the West Yosemite Avenue medical facility. California Nurses Association labor representative Kevin Hall said the Kaiser-Manteca nurses will be knocking on doors this morning. The door-to-door foot campaign will begin with a 30-minute group assembly at the Manteca Fire Station No. 4, 1465 W. Lathrop Road west of Union Road before the nurses start walking around the age-restricted neighborhood.