Patient Care Conditions Worsen as County Continues to Lose Nurses to Region’s Private Hospitals

After more than a year of negotiations and Contra Costa County’s continued refusal to address deteriorating patient care conditions at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and numerous County clinics—County nurses will hold a two-day strike October 6-7, the California Nurses Association (CNA) announced today.
 
The walkout will involve nearly 1,000 County RNs, nurse practitioners and public health nurses.
 
“County nurses are going on strike because we cannot stay silent as we see patient care conditions continue to worsen in our County hospital and clinics,” says Liz Isenberg, an Intensive Care Unit RN, who has worked at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center for 22 years. “Nurses continue to leave the County for jobs at surrounding hospitals resulting in a severe nursing shortage. We cannot stand by as the situation deteriorates for our patients and our colleagues.”
 
County nurses are very concerned about the severe understaffing problems plaguing the healthcare system. In June and July, nurses testified at the Board of Supervisors that specialty units, like the Labor and Delivery department, routinely lack core staff. The County's unwillingness to seriously invest in its nursing staff has resulted in an inability to recruit and retain experienced RNs—as well as high turnover rates. 
 
In the last year, over 100 nurses have left the County for jobs at other hospitals in the region. The County lost 22 Emergency Room nurses and 24 nurses in Labor and Delivery. In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), 50 percent of the night shift nurses left within the last year.
 
Nurses are concerned that under current management practices, the County is providing training for new nurses who leave after a couple years for better employment conditions in other area hospitals.

“We call on the County to invest not in temporary replacement nurses, but instead in patients,” said Karla Castro, an RN in the Nursery, who has worked at the County for 6 years. “The resources spent on hiring replacements during this strike should instead be directed toward improving patient care.”
 
“As nurses, we will always stand up for our patients,” continued Castro. “We have tried for over a year to improve unsafe staffing and to recruit and retain the kind of experienced nurses our community deserves. If it takes us walking out to finally inspire real change, then that’s what we will do.”