Major Nurses Strike and Picket October 30 to Protest Hospital H1N1 Flu Safety Gaps
Some 16,000 registered nurses at 39 hospitals at three Catholic
hospital chains in California and Nevada will join a one-day strike and
picket October 30 as RNs step up the protest over poor readiness by
many hospitals to confront the H1N1 pandemic, the California Nurses
Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) announced.
The strike will
affect hospitals across California from San Bernardino and Long Beach
in the south to Eureka and Redding in the north, and include major
facilities in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose,
Bakersfield, Stockton, and the Central Coast. Additionally, nurses will
picket major facilities in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada.
Central
to the walkout is concern over the failure of the hospital chains to
assure adequate safety precautions for patients, their families,
nurses, and other healthcare employees for the escalating H1N1 "swine
flu" pandemic.
Many
hospitals continue to do a poor job, RNs say, at isolating patients
with H1N1 symptoms and other steps to limit contagion, or provide
sufficient fit-tested N95 respirators and other protective gear for
healthcare workers and patients.
Updated
Centers for Disease Control recommendations released last week
re-affirmed guidelines for isolation and safety equipment, and urged
hospitals to avoid policies that encourage employees to work when sick,
another problem in many hospitals.
CNA/NNOC
wants hospitals to formally adopt all CDC and Cal-OSHA guidelines to
make them enforceable by CNA/NNOC contract provisions assuring the
highest safety measures are met, and are uniform, consistently applied
throughout the systems.
"Our
hospital isn't being proactive in preparing for the expected onslaught
of H1N1 infected patients," said Kathy Dennis, RN at Mercy General
Hospital in Sacramento. "We must put the proper precautions in place
now before flu seasons peaks or we will all be in serious trouble."
Complicating
swine flu preparedness, RNs say many hospitals fall far short in
assuring proper RN staffing as required under a California law
requiring minimum, safe RN-to-patient staffing ratios. CNA/NNOC
proposes RN monitors to assure compliance with the law in all hospital
units.
"Our hospitals are
not adhering to the safe staffing ratios law," said Allen Fitzpatrick,
RN who works at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco. "We need
someone to stand up for safe RN-to-patient staffing."
"We
have a comprehensive staffing proposal on the table because no matter
how much care a patient requires our hospital won't add nurses and has
eliminated our aides," said Susan Johnson, an Obstetrics RNs at St.
Joseph Hospital in Eureka.
RNs
also want to stop the practice of some of the hospitals that mandate
RNs to "float" - work in clinical areas outside their expertise,
training, and orientation - which puts patients at risk. Additionally,
the RNs are insisting that hospitals withdraw efforts to reduce
healthcare benefits by shifting more costs to nurses and reducing
coverage options. In several areas, hospitals are also demanding a wage
freeze.
"As nurses, we
see the consequences when employers reduce coverage, it's disgraceful
to see our hospitals taking the same step," said Debra Amour RN at
Seton Medical Center in Daly City. "Such demands, would also sharply
undermine the ability of the hospitals to keep nurses at the bedside
and recruit new RNs."
CNA/NNOC
represents 86,000 registered nurses in all 50 states, and is working
toward unification with the Massachusetts Nurses Association and United
American Nurses to build a new 150,000 member national nurses
organization.