RNs at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital to protest management’s understaffing, resulting in unnecessarily long wait times in the ER 

Registered nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, in Baltimore, Md., will hold a rally on Friday, March 14, to highlight their patient safety concerns, including hospital-wide short-staffing, unnecessarily long wait times in the ER, and lack of pediatrics-trained nurses, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) today.

Ascension’s chronic short-staffing has resulted in the high turnover of nurses, RNs missing breaks over their 12-hour shifts, unreasonable wait times in the ER, no nurses to staff the operating room for emergency overnight cases, and a lack of nurses with sufficient pediatric training to care for young patients. More than 60 nurses have left since January, about 10 percent of the nursing staff.

“Ascension’s refusal to properly staff the emergency room has created deeply concerning wait times for patients,” said Thabita Senra, RN in the ED. “Our sickest patients end up waiting the longest because we do not have enough nurses to promptly provide the care they require. This means delays in giving medications these patients need because they require constant monitoring.”

Who: RNs at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital
What: Rally for Patient Safety
When: Friday, March 14, 7:45 a.m.-8:45 a.m.
Where: Saint Agnes Hospital, 900 S. Caton Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229, on the grassy area with the “Ascension Saint Agnes” sign on the corner of the main drive-in entrance.

“Despite needing at least two pediatric nurses to staff our department, hospital management will only schedule one and float nurses from other units for most shifts,” said Nicki Horvat, RN in the Maternal Child Health department. “Assigning float nurses who do not have sufficient pediatric training is problematic. These young patients have different vital sign parameters and need more reassurance than adult patients. Sometimes, management pulls a nurse from the post-partum unit, which in turn often denies new moms the breastfeeding training and support we would like to give. This is not fair to our patients.”

“To increase their profit margins, Ascension refuses to consistently staff nurses overnight in the operating room, opting to rely exclusively on the on-call nurses,” said Carolyn Turner, RN in the OR. “This is unconscionable because it takes up to 45 minutes for an on-call nurse to get from home to a patient who comes in for an emergency. One of our common emergency cases is an ectopic pregnancy and we have had these cases come through with no night shift nurse available. If an ectopic pregnancy ruptures, it is extremely dangerous and requires immediate attention.” 

“It is only a matter of time before something goes wrong due to Ascension’s lack of preparedness,” said Turner. “They only look at numbers and forget that human beings are connected to those numbers.”

NNOC represents more than 600 registered nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.