Registered nurses will testify on deteriorating patient care conditions at Watsonville Community Hospital at the Watsonville City Council Tuesday night and ask for their support on a resolution citing the need to immediately rectify chronic short-staffing at the hospital.
 
“The nurses of Watsonville are urging our city council to stand for the constituents of Watsonville, to help nurses protect the most vulnerable—the needy, the sick, the mothers, sisters, husbands, and babies--who come to our community hospital for safe and quality healthcare.  We are urging our City Council members to put our Resolution on the October agenda and help us advocate for our patients, families, and neighbors. Our community deserves nothing less." Roseann Farris, RN-CCU.
 
What: Nurses Urge City Council to Support Resolution on Watsonville Community Hospital
When: Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015 – Rally: 6 p.m. Council meeting 6:30 p.m.
Where: 275 Main Street, Watsonville, CA
 
“I witness nurses working back-to-back and 16-hour shifts. In the Critical Care Unit where I work,  the Hospital's core staffing requires that we have four nurses available for every shift; but there are times we have had only one or two," said Farris.

In August Watsonville Community Hospital became part of the Quorum Health Corporation, a new subsidiary of Community Health Systems, the largest provider of non-urban acute care in the nation. Just prior to the change, most managers were let go and replaced by interim managers. The new hospital management continues to refuse to maintain safe staffing levels or accept "ADO's," nurses' documentation of unsafe patient care conditions, nurses say.