Informational Picket and Rally – Jan. 29, 12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Registered nurses will hold an informational picket and rally at St. Mary’s Medical Center, Monday, Jan. 29, to protest the hospital’s refusal to address eroding patient care conditions in units throughout the hospital.

Nurses are calling on St. Mary’s, part of San Francisco-based Dignity Health, to live up to their mission of providing excellent patient care for our patients and the communities we serve

What: Nurses Informational Picket and Rally
When: Monday, Jan. 29^th 12:00 – 2:30 pm. Rally at 12:30 p.m.
Where: St. Mary’s Medical Center, 450 Stanyan Street, San Francisco

“We’re holding a picket to let the public know that as nurses we are committed to making St. Mary’s live up to its mission. The staffing crisis is causing delays in treatment and putting nursing staff under tremendous stress, said Vernon Newton, RN.

The staffing crisis has been exacerbated, say nurses, by the hospital’s failure over the past two years to put forth a robust winter staffing plan. The severity of this year’s flu season has put an additional strain on staffing. Rather than increase staff in anticipation of higher patient volume, the hospital is expecting RNs to regularly work 16-hour shifts.

“I’ve worked at St. Mary’s for 28 years and the current situation is definitely worse than I’ve ever seen it,” said Nelson Murcar, RN, Emergency Department. “The volume in the ER is way up, which is to be expected during the flu season, but because we’re operating under staffed, patients are experiencing long wait times."

“They are refusing to provide the level of staff required relative to patients’ acuity and now they propose to eliminate the vital charge nurse position from every unit,” said Amy Preble, RN, Intensive Care Unit. “Under the new scenario the staffing crisis will intensify and the hospital has made absolutely no plan for maintaining the rapid response team which currently consists of charge nurses who are able to quickly respond to emergency codes which occur during every shift.”

At the rally RNs will be speaking out on their staffing concerns, increased employee stress due to working long hours and the proposed removal of charge nurses from all units.