March to SMVH Mirrors Cesar Chavez’s Historic March

More than 150 registered nurses, their families and supporters are expected to attend a march and candlelight vigil Thursday to protest worsening patient care conditions at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and a proposal by management to reduce nurse staffing levels.

What:  Candlelight March and Vigil at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital
When:  Thursday, April 23; participants gather at 5 p.m. outside 1186 Main Street; march begins at 5:30 p.m. to arrive at hospital at 6:00 p.m.
Where:  Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital 450 E. Romie Lane, Salinas, CA  93901

Hospital management is attempting to make drastic cuts to bedside nurses and reduce patient care despite making nearly $50 million dollars in profits in the last two fiscal years, according to Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital’s own financial statements. Over that same period many senior executives received pay increases.

“It is unconscionable that our administration would cut staffing while the hospital is making record profits,” said SVMH emergency room RN Vanessa Lockard, “Nurses are in the job of healing people and are opposed to the hospital’s efforts to cut costs at our patients’ expense.”

Research indicates that the consequences of such cost-cutting measures can often be fatal. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents the 600 hospital RNs, cites studies which strongly suggest a link between patient morbidity rates and the number of nurses assigned to each patient.”

Participants will begin to gather at 5 p.m. on Main Street outside a Starbucks coffee house. The march will begin at 5:30 p.m. and follow the route taken by the legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez when he led the largest farmworker strike in history in 1979.

“We are marching in Cesar Chavez’s footsteps to make sure that Salinas Valley remains a community hospital that puts patient care first,” said ICU nurse Tracy Chavez. “Our patients deserve a hospital whose priority is taking care of them.”

Salinas Valley nurses have been without a contract for nearly a year. In August of last year, SVMH management refused to accept Assignment Despite Objection, or ADO forms, which RNs submit to management to protest assignments that they believe jeopardize patients’ health.  The ADO forms have highlighted growing problems with patient care throughout the facility, including:

• Management’s refusal to assign RNs to monitor patient heart rates.
• An overall reduction in nurse staffing levels, leading to unsafe conditions. Studies have shown that nurse staffing is a critical component in patients’ morbidity rates and bedsores, as well as serious falls and other accidents.
• Delays in providing necessary physical therapy to recovering patients.
• The hospitals’ reliance on faulty electronic translation systems rather than interpreters.
• Nurse fatigue caused by extended work shifts and too little time off.