Media Advisory
October 15, 2012

OAKLAND—Registered nurses will hold a picket outside the Kaiser Permanente Oakland hospital Tuesday, October 16 to air concerns about ongoing problems with appropriate safe staffing at the Oakland hospital, the California Nurses Association announced today.

What:   RN picketing over safe staffing
When:   Tuesday, October 16, 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Where:  Kaiser Oakland, Howe Street at MacArthur

The nurses say that Kaiser managers are not ensuring that there is safe staffing beyond the minimum standard for safe staffing ratios to assure there is appropriate staffing based on individual patient need at all times throughout the hospital.

RNs also are calling for improved staffing in all hospital departments to move and lift patients to reduce the risk of patient falls or injury, and for dedicated rapid response teams in the hospital to respond to emergencies.

Finally, the RNs say that Kaiser needs to assure there is a triage RN in the emergency room at all times to assess patients needing emergency care.

"We are concerned because Kaiser management has continuously ignored the voice of the registered nurse advocating for our patients,” says Kaiser Oakland RN Kathy Donohue.  “For months nurses have been raising staffing concerns.”   

“Resources need to be going to the patients, not increasing the number of upper level managers,” adds Katy Roemer, RN who also works at Kaiser Oakland.

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