MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TUESDAY, JULY 30, 7 A.M.

RNs demand that management staff floors appropriately, stop jeopardizing patient care

Registered nurses at Doctors Medical Center (DMC) in Modesto, Calif., a hospital owned by Tenet Healthcare Corporation, will hold a picket on Tuesday, July 30 to highlight troubling patient safety concerns and chronic short staffing that jeopardizes patient care, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today.

Over the past several months, nurses say patient care conditions have deteriorated due to the hospital administration’s ongoing mismanagement of RN staffing. Last week, hospital management forced RNs to leave their shifts early, forcing the remaining nurses to care for more patients. Nearly every unit in the hospital is short-staffed.

“When nursing care is rationed by the hospital, patients suffer more complications and preventable death,” said Lynn Warmerdam, an RN in case management at DMC. “As RNs, we have a moral obligation to act in the best interest of our patients and speak out against this injustice. DMC management continues to put profits over patients, and the RNs won’t stand for it.”

• Who:    RNs at Doctors Medical Center, Modesto
• What:   Picket for patient safety with media availability
• When:  Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 7 a.m.-8 a.m.
• Where: Doctors Medical Center, 1441 Florida Ave, on public sidewalk outside hospital

Nurses have filed dozens of assignment despite objection forms (ADOs) documenting unsafe staffing. As a result of unsafe working conditions, nurses are leaving DMC, creating a major deficit of seasoned, skilled RNs to help train newly-graduated RNs.

CNA represents approximately 1,200 registered nurses at Doctors Medical Center.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and nearly 225,000 RNs nationwide.