Informational Picket – Thursday, August 2, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Registered nurses at HCA-affiliated Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso will hold an informational picket Aug. 2, urging hospital management to address RN turnover rates and consistently comply with staffing grids. This will improve the recruitment and retention of experienced RNs, and ensure optimal patient care, say nurses.

What: RNs Plan Informational Picket, Urge Management to Address Turnover Rates and Invest in Retaining Nursing Staff
When: Thursday Aug. 2, 6 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Where: Del Sol Medical Center, 10301, El Paso, Texas

Nurses also plan informational pickets at HCA-affiliated hospital, Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas on the same date, Aug. 2, and at Medical Center of Trinity in Trinity, Fla., on August 6.

Over the five weeks registered nurses have also held pickets at the following HCA-affiliated hospitals: Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso and Corpus Christi Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas, Nev., Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Fla., Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, Fla., Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee, Fla., Blake Medical Center in Bradenton Fla., Doctor’s Hospital of Sarasota in Sarasota, Fla., Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, Fla., and St. Petersburg General Hospital and Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Del Sol Medical Center’s difficulty in retaining registered nurses is borne out in their own data, which nurses obtained through an information request. Well over a third of the registered nurses, 43 percent, have worked at Del Sol Medical Center for less than 18 months, while nearly two-thirds, 63.8 percent, have worked there for less than three years. Only 11 percent have worked at the hospital for more than ten years.

“I’ve worked at Del Sol Medical Center for nearly 15 years and I’m committed to ensuring that my patients receive optimal care,” said Letty Borrego, an RN in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. “We’re picketing to urge the hospital to take active steps to reduce turnover by investing in the nursing staff. This will support the RNs in providing the care our patients deserve without delay.”

“We know the hospital has the resources to strengthen the recruitment and retention of RNs at Del Sol, especially since they are beneficiaries of huge tax cuts under the Tax Cut and Jobs Act passed earlier this year,” said Kim Martinez, an RN in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. “We want the hospital to use its resources to invest in recruitment and retention of nurses because this will greatly benefit our patients.”

The 450 registered nurses at Del Sol Medical Center are members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, NNOC/Texas. Their contract expired June 30, 2018 and they are in ongoing contract negotiations. NNOC/Texas is affiliated with National Nurses United, the largest and fastest growing union of registered nurses in the United States with 150,000 members. NNU plays a leadership role in safeguarding the health and safety of RNs and their patients and has won landmark legislation in the areas of staffing, safe patient handling, infectious disease and workplace violence prevention.