Informational Pickets – Thursday July 12, 6 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

RNs Also Plan Pickets at HCA-Affiliated Hospitals in Sarasota, Bradenton, Brooksville and St. Petersburg

Registered nurses at Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee, Fla. will hold an informational picket on Thursday, July 12, to urge management to take active steps to address turnover and comply with the hospital’s staffing grid. This will improve the recruitment and retention of experienced RNs, and ensure optimal patient care, say nurses.

What: Informational Picket by Registered Nurses
When: Thursday, July 12, 6 a.m. – 8 a.m.
Where: Osceola Regional Medical Center, 700 Oak St., Kissimmee, Fla.

Registered nurses will also hold pickets at HCA-affiliated hospitals in the following locations on the same date, July 12, 6 – 8 a.m.:  St. Petersburg General Hospital and Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg, Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, and Doctor’s Hospital of Sarasota, in Sarasota.

The hospitals’ turnover rates are borne out in their own data, which nurses obtained through an information request. Over half of the hospital’s registered nurses, 52 percent, have worked at the hospital for less than three years, with fully a third, 33 percent, employed there less than 18 months.

“Quality care requires the retention of experienced RNS and that’s why as patient advocates, we’re asking the hospital to address turnover by investing in the nursing staff,” said Marissa Lee, RN, Labor and Delivery. “ They have the resources to invest in patient care, especially since they received huge tax cuts under the Tax Cut and Jobs Act.”

The RNs at the HCA-affiliated hospitals conducting the pickets on July 12 are members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, NNOC/Florida. Their contract expired May 31, 2018 and they are in ongoing contract negotiations. NNOC/Florida 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.