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At least 800 Chicago nurses and several hundred health care workers went on strike Monday, calling for safer working conditions and fair pay. "Nurses across the country are at the tipping point," said Doris Carroll, who has worked as a nurse at University of Illinois Health for more than three decades and is president of the Illinois Nurses Association board, the nurses' union. She said chronic staffing shortages were a problem even before COVID-19; now things have gotten even worse. "When the pandemic hit, it was awful," she said. (Schumaker, 9/14)

The strike was supposed to include about 1,300 nurses, but a Cook County judge ruled Friday that 525 nurses who work in critical care units couldn’t participate because it would endanger patients' safety. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees had sued to keep many of the nurses from striking. The union has said the strike could last seven days. No further negotiating sessions were scheduled for this weekend, as of Saturday. (Schencker, 9/13)

Striking nurses at University of Illinois Hospitals say they are being replaced by nurses the hospital is shipping in from COVID-19 hot spots. ... The union also claimed Saturday that UIC is looking to bring in strikebreakers. "UIC is bringing in workers from states with higher COVID-19 transmission rates to break a strike from a workforce complaining that management risks worker and patient lives due to inconsistent COVID-19 safety protocol enforcement, " said Dian Palmer, SEIU Local 73 President. "We want to come to an agreement that is fair and just for UIC workers, but we're also ready to strike. UIC workers are not only fighting for their livelihoods, but for their lives, the safety of their families, and the communities being served." (Kirsch, 9/13)

The coronavirus pandemic has challenged the way hospitals think about the design of their facilities, changing how doctors and nurses move through the hallways and rearranging patients’ beds. (Booker and Rothman, 9/13)

A longtime North Platte doctor is one of the latest COVID-19 casualties in the state, with his death coming as officials confirmed more than 38,000 cases of the virus in Nebraska. Dr. Leland Lamberty died Saturday after weeks of fighting the virus, the North Platte Telegraph reported. Lamberty was hospitalized in late August with the virus and was put on a ventilator about a week before his death. Lamberty was a physician at Great Plains Health hospital and Great Plains Family Medicine clinic in North Platte. (9/14)

A former Omaha TV weatherman and spokesman for a former mayor has taken a plea deal months after being accused of emailing death threats to a local health department director over her handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Ronald Penzkowski, 57, pleaded no contest Friday to two misdemeanor counts of third-degree assault, the Omaha World-Herald reported Monday. He initially had been charged with a felony count of making terroristic threats. (9/14)

A top Australian public health officer has become the latest in a string of health officials around the world to face death threats over their responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Jeannette Young, the chief health officer in the Australian state of Queensland, said the threats have taken an “enormous toll” on her, the Australian newspaper reported Monday. A police detail has been stationed outside her house. (Noack and Mellen, 9/14)