RNs demand serious proposals to improve staffing, nurse retention

Nurses at two HCA Florida hospitals in the Orlando area will hold rallies this week to protest HCA’s failure to seriously address their staffing and nurse retention crises in contract negotiations. Nurses at HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital in Sanford will rally on Wednesday, June 26, and nurses from HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee will rally on Thursday, June 27. Nurses are represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU).

“Nurses across the Orlando area, across Florida, and across the country are at the table with HCA fighting for our patients,” said Adriana Cuazo, RN in the Osceola Hospital neurotrauma intensive care unit. “We need serious solutions to the staffing and retention issues at our hospitals because we know that having experienced staff nurses at the bedside is the best way to improve patient care.”

The nurses’ most recent contracts expired May 31, but, in bargaining sessions to date, nurses report that HCA has refused to address chronic and systemic issues such as short staffing and lack of resources, which undermine and jeopardize patient care.

Who: Nurses at HCA Florida Lake Monroe and Osceola Hospitals
What: Protests to demand a strong contract
When and Where:
Wednesday, June 26, 7:45 a.m.
Lake Monroe Hospital, 1401 W. Seminole Blvd., Sanford, Fla.
Thursday, June 27, 7:30 a.m.
Osceola Hospital, 700 W. Oak St., Kissimmee, Fla.

“We’re fighting for better staffing, for our meal and rest breaks, and to make our hospitals places where nurses want to spend their careers taking care of our patients,” said Nathan Knight, RN in the cardiac neuro unit. This is about the conditions nurses are working in, which are the conditions that patients are taken care of in.”

HCA, the largest health system in the country, advertises over 180 hospitals in its network. The company self-reported over $5.2 billion in profits in 2023 but regularly shuts down vital health services at its hospitals. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, HCA has reported more than $31.7 billion in profits since 2018 and executive compensation totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

HCA co-founder and major shareholder Thomas Frist Jr., who has extensive experience serving as an executive at HCA, currently ranks in the top 75 of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans and the top 60 of the Bloomberg Billionaire Index of the world’s 500 richest people, with an estimated net worth of nearly $30 billion.

NNOC/NNU represents more than 650 nurses at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital and nearly 350 at HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital, a total of more than 1,000 nurses at Orlando-area HCA facilities. NNOC/NNU nurses are currently negotiating new contracts at 17 HCA hospitals in six states.

National Nurses Organizing Committee is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with nearly 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates also include California Nurses Association, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.