UCLA RNs threaten mass resignations in response to untenable management changes to longtime scheduling practices

Registered nurses from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will hold a rally on May 29 to protest major changes by management to scheduling practices for float pool nurses, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today. These changes could result in mass resignations, negatively impact patient safety, and create unsafe staffing across UCLA Health.

UCLA float pool nurses cover multiple units within their specialty and are essential for covering staffing shortfalls throughout the hospital. The current scheduling practices have been in place for the past several years and allow float pool nurses to schedule four shifts at any time during a month. On May 25, UCLA management plans to implement new scheduling practices requiring float pool nurses to work at least one shift per week.

Under the previous practice, nurses were recruited with the promise of flexibility, attracting nurses with families, elderly care duties, second jobs, and higher education goals. This flexibility greatly expanded the number of nurses available to work at UCLA. The proposed change will undermine scheduling flexibility for these nurses, potentially forcing as many as 200 nurses to resign from UCLA Health.

In a 2023 article by UCLA management on the success of our float pool, they noted that during the recruitment phase, one of the benefits was “flexible scheduling” and that after the in-house float pool was in place, there was a 45 percent drop in dependence on contract labor (i.e. travel nurses).

“Because we have this successful float pool program, we rely less on travelers and have a stable group of nurses who know our facility, know our patients, and are part of the UCLA community,” said Kimberly Anderson, a UCLA float pool nurse representative. “This lets us give our patients the best care.”

Who: RNs at the University of California, Los Angeles
What: Rally to protest management’s changes, support float pool nurses
When: Wednesday, May 29, 7:30 a.m.
Where: UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center (757 Westwood Plaza); valet entrance on Westwood Plaza

On May 14 in a staff meeting, management told float pool nurses, in no uncertain terms, that the RNs were expendable, and that if 20 percent of float pool nurses quit, they will simply hire replacements.

“You cannot easily replace nurses with so many years of experience and who are so skilled at caring for our patients,” said Jannel Gooden, RN, and a UCLA float pool nurse representative.

“These changes to our scheduling flexibility present a clear threat to nurses and their patients, who will bear the burdens of management's arbitrary, poorly conceived ‘solutions’ to a problem of their own making,” added Neil Rudis, RN and a UCLA float pool nurse representative.

CNA/NNU represents nearly 22,000 registered nurses across the University of California system who work at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and nearly 225,000 RNs nationwide.