Registered nurses at University of California medical centers will hold speak outs Tuesday and Wednesday to alert the public that UC hospitals, now being promoted as priority hospitals for treating any potential Ebola patients in California, are far from prepared, according to the frontline RNs.
 
Speak out actions will occur Tuesday at UC San Francisco and UC San Diego and at UCLA on Wednesday. The nurses are members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents 12,000 RNs at the five UC medical centers.

• UC San Diego  – Hillcrest Campus, Tuesday, October 28, 11 a.m., 200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego
• UC San Francisco, Tuesday, October 28, 12 noon, 505 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, in front of medical center
• UCLA Medical Center – Wednesday, October 29, 7 a.m., 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles

 
While University officials have been insisting that their hospitals are ready, joined by the California Hospital Association whose board chair, Mark Laret is the CEO at UCSF, RNs at the medical centers tell a very different story.
 
“We are not prepared, not equipped, not staffed for even one Ebola patient,” Erin Carrera, an RN at UC San Francisco Medical Center, said at a meeting of several hundred RNs with California regulatory officials last week.
 
 “We know that the communication to direct care RNs in every area is deficient,” adds UCSF RN Maureen Dugan who is also a CNA board member.
 
“Weeks after registered nurse, Nina Pham, was infected in Texas, the preparedness at our hospitals is still a work in progress. This is unacceptable,” said Fong Chuu, UCLA RN and a CNA board member.
 
NNU has been demanding that all hospitals implement the optimal standards in personal protective equipment and training protocols, and calling on federal and state officials to mandate hospitals comply with the optimal protections for nurses, other frontline health workers, patients, and the general public.
 
For more on the optimal standards NNU and CNA recommend, see the NNU website at www.nationalnursesunited.org.
 
“The people who are most likely to contract Ebola are the very people who take care of Ebola patients,” said NNU co-president Deborah Burger, RN. “That is why it is so imperative for these hospitals to go beyond promises to action.”
 
“It is unconscionable that the hospitals do not have the optimal standards and protocols already in place to protect our caregivers,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, NNU and CNA executive director, reiterating the NNU call on elected officials to mandate all hospitals comply with the optimal standards and protocols.