A Washington state lawmaker is in hot water after making a comment about nurses having too much idle time on their hands. The backlash has resulted in her receiving almost 2,000 decks of cards.

Last week, Senator Maureen Walsh was speaking about a proposed bill that would provide for mandatory breaks for nurses and other hospital workers during their shifts. She was not on board with the policy being for everyone:

“By putting these types of mandates on a critical access hospital that literally serves a handful of individuals, I would submit to you those nurses probably do get breaks. They probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day.”

Many nurses felt insulted and responded to the senator’s words with their own campaign. In addition to open letters being posted on social media and card decks being mailed, a petition has been started on change.org requesting that Walsh spend time shadowing a nurse. It’s gotten more than 700,000 signatures.

The feedback has not gone unnoticed, and Walsh has publicly apologized for her statement while defending her position on the policy’s mandate. She appreciates nurses and feels her words were taken out of context.

Click on this video to hear Walsh’s senate floor argument and to listen to her apology. Will she take up the petition’s challenge?

Are you one of this senator’s constituents? How do you feel about her original comments and her apology?