Urge Hospital to Comply with Staffing Plan, Recruit and Retain Experienced RNs

Registered nurses will hold an informational picket on Weds. Sept. 2 to urge Fawcett Memorial Hospital to consistently comply with its own staffing plan and take positive steps to improve the recruitment and retention of experienced RNs.

“Our professional responsibility as nurses is to advocate for our patients so they receive safe quality care and that is why we are asking the hospital to consistently comply with its staffing plan," said June Phillips, an RN in the Spine/Ortho Unit. "When the hospital is in compliance our patients are much more likely to get the attention they need when they need it and that of course is vital to healing and recovery," said Phillips who has been an RN for nearly eight years.

What: Registered nurses hold informational picket
When:  Wednesday, Sept. 2., 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Where: Fawcett Memorial Hospital 21298 Olean Blvd., Port Charlotte, Fla. 

According to recent data provided by the hospital, it is regularly out of compliance with its own staffing plan. For example, during January of this year the CVICU, which cares for open-heart surgery patients, was out of compliance for 10 shifts. or 16% of the time. During the same period the ICU was out of compliance for 22 shifts or 35% of the time.

When the hospital is out of compliance with its staffing plan nurses are more likely to miss rest and meal breaks.  Research shows that these breaks are vital to prevent fatigue that contributes to medical errors and injury to patients and staff. Fawcett Memorial Hospital nurses regularly work 12-hour shifts and miss their rest and meal breaks because they don't want to leave their patients unattended, nurses say.

The nurses are also asking the hospital to address the dismal wage conditions for RNs in Florida, which contribute to high turnover rates and loss of experienced RNs. Fawcett Memorial Hospital can play a leadership role, nurses say, by aligning its wages with the national average. Currently Florida RNs are paid $3.00 below the national average and although Florida is the third largest state it ranks 28th in terms of RN wages.

The 302 registered nurses at Fawcett Memorial Hospital, affiliated with the National Nurses Organizing Committee, NNOC/FL are in ongoing contract negotiations with Fawcett Memorial Hospital and their contract expired May 31, 2015. NNOC/FL is affiliated with National Nurses United, the largest organization of registered nurses in the United States with 186,000 members.