Florida Medical Center RNs to Hold Informational Picket Wednesday
Nurses Rally to Ensure Top Quality Care

 
To draw attention to issues that would help ensure safe patient care, registered nurses at Florida Medical Center will hold an informational picket on Wednesday, October 21, National Nurses United announced today.
 
“It’s our duty, as nurses, to stand up for our patients—and that’s why we’ll be talking to the community on Wednesday,” said Christel Willis, RN. “The issues we are asking the hospital to address—such as maintaining consistent, optimum staffing levels—can help uphold the best possible care for our community.”
 
What:             Informational Picket by Nurses at Florida Medical Center  
When:            Wednesday, October 21, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Where:           5000 W Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33313

Nurses say that specific issues they will bring to light center around the Emergency Room and Psych Unit. These issues include:

• Emergency Room staffing: Nurses say that nurse-to-patient ratios in the Emergency Room are often not at the hospital’s own stated optimal levels. With adequate staffing, nurses say, patients can be seen faster and receive medication promptly.
  
  “We are sometimes at capacity, as it is, and then also see transfer patients from other facilities, and our goal is to ensure that the hospital always has enough nurses on hand to handle even an influx of patients,” says Willis, RN. “We should always have enough staff on hand to care for the patients who walk through our door seeking care.”

• Psych Unit staffing: Nurses say that nurse-to-patient ratios in the Psych Unit are also often not at the hospital’s own stated optimal levels. Staffing in the unit, say nurses, should take into account patients who have come in to the Emergency Room and not just those already admitted to the hospital.  With adequate staffing, nurses say they can better provide the care their patients deserve.
• Proper Psych Unit patient assignments. Nurses are advocating for a separation of patients who are experiencing depression and patients who are experiencing psychosis, in separate units, to the benefit of both patients and staff.

“Our nurses are going to be out talking to the community about how the hospital can best ensure top quality care—namely by ensuring staffing is always in line with what the hospital itself has agreed upon as the most optimum levels,” says Marylin Crabtree, RN. “That’s what our patients deserve.”