Safe Staffing and Workplace Safety Issues Put Patients at Risk, Say Nurses

 
After 10 months of stalled contract negotiations, Marin General Hospital (MGH) nurses have issued a strike notice, for a one-day strike that would, if necessary, take place Thursday, Nov. 5, the California Nurses Association (CNA) announced today.
 
The walkout will involve around 520 registered nurses from MGH. Nurses say they are prepared to strike, if necessary, over patient care and workplace safety issues, which have not been adequately addressed—although the hospital has reported $49 million in profits over the last three years.
 
“I am striking for my patients and my community to demand that the hospital prioritize patients over profits,” said Sharmaine Collier, a Labor and Delivery RN. “I was born and raised in Marin and started working as a new grad at Marin General Hospital 33 years ago. Over the years, I have provided care for generations of Marin residents. It’s our job, as nurses, to advocate on behalf of our patients—to make sure they’re getting the best possible care.”
 
Issues that MGH nurses are calling on management to address include:

• Safe staffing: MGH nurses say that lack of adequate staffing in several departments is causing challenges in obtaining sufficient breaks. Studies show that inadequate breaks and resulting fatigue can compromise patient care—and can negatively affect nurses’ health and safety. Nurses are calling on the hospital to add one additional nurse per department, to assist in providing break relief.
• Workplace safety: Nurses and nursing assistants are at significant risk of injuries and musculoskeletal disorders, which are often the result of manually lifting patients. (According to the Centers for Disease Control, musculoskeletal injuries from overexertion in healthcare occupations are among the highest of all U.S. industries.) MGH RNs do not have sufficient lift equipment or 24-hour access to lift teams to help move and turn patients in the middle of the night.
  
  “At night we do not have a lift team to help us turn patients and step in during emergency situations,” said Virginia Currie, an RN in the Cardiac Specialty Care Unit. “Marin County has a high elderly population and I provide care for acute patients with serious heart conditions. We need a twenty-four hour lift team to assist and help prevent RN injuries on the job.”

• Retention of fulltime, experienced nurses: Over the past year, as working conditions have continued to deteriorate, MGH has struggled to fill 62 open RN positions with full-time, experienced nurses. As a result, RNs say, there has been an influx in the use of “traveler” nurses in several units of the hospital (temporary nurses, often brought in from other areas). Travelers are unfamiliar with the hospital and patient population, nurses say, and also often take valuable training time—only to leave. Nurses are calling on management to invest in hiring local nurses and retaining the longtime, experienced nurses the community deserves.

 
Nurses have an additional bargaining session scheduled for Friday, October 30.
 
“As nurses, we will always stand up for our patients. We have tried for almost 11 months now to improve unsafe staffing and address workplace conditions. If it takes us walking out to finally inspire real change, then that is what we will do,” said Chief Nurse Rep Barbara Ryan, RN.