Registered nurses at HCA’s Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, Fla., will hold a rally on June 7 to demand that hospital management take immediate action toward recruiting and retaining staff nurses, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) announced today. Oak Hill RNs say dangerous conditions in their hospital necessitate immediate action to protect patient care and safety, and safe staffing is the solution.

At Oak Hill Hospital, nurses are forced to take as many as twelve patients each, putting patients at increased risk of infections, slowing recovery times, and creating other negative outcomes. RNs routinely miss meal and rest breaks. The hospital is so severely short-staffed that nurses also report having accidents as a result of being unable to take bathroom breaks. These high RN-to-patient ratios and long hours with no breaks endanger patient care and safety.

"I work with the most critically ill patients in the hospital in the intensive care unit, and we are so chronically understaffed that patients' lives are put at unnecessary risk every day,” said Judy Preuss, an RN in the ICU at Oak Hill. “As nurses, we are patient advocates, and we are tirelessly advocating for safer staffing standards in defiance of HCA's pursuit of profits.”

• Who: RNs at HCA’s Oak Hill Hospital
• What: Rally for Recruitment and Retention
• When: Tuesday, June 7, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
• Where: Cortez Boulevard, in front of Oak Hill Hospital

Nurses are demanding HCA’s Oak Hill Hospital stop creating unsafe conditions for patients. When nurses have too many patients to care for, patients do not get optimal care. Oak Hill RNs say management must immediately implement safe RN-to-patient ratios and cease all efforts to undermine RNs’ scope of practice.

NNOC/NNU represents about 450 registered nurses at Oak Hills Hospital.

National Nurses Organizing Committee is a national union and professional organization affiliated with National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 175,000 members nationwide.