Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1152911
A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 1 9 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 11 NATIONAL R egistered nurses at 12 Tenet hospitals in Arizona, California, and Florida, held informational pickets on May 28, urging management to invest in nursing staff. This will improve the recruitment and retention of experienced RNs, and ensure optimal patient care. "We're holding informational pickets because we are committed to advocating for our patients," said Laura Bruce, an RN who works in the ICU at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California. "We know that when the hospital invests in the nursing staff, we can provide our patients with optimal care." In addition, RNs from Tenet-affiliated Hospitals of Providence, Sierra and Memo- rial Campuses in El Paso, Texas held a rally for optimal patient care on the same day as the informational pickets. California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee represents more than 6,200 nurses at Tenet facilities across the United States. —Staff report ILLINOIS R egistered nurses, doctors, and health care workers convened a town hall meeting in June to alert the public to growing maternal and infant public health concerns if Chica- go's Jackson Park Hospital closes its OB- GYN services in August as scheduled. "The elimination of OB-GYN services at Jackson Park will most certainly make worse an already dangerous environment for mothers and their babies," said Yolanda Clark, a registered nurse at Jackson Park. "For this hospital to take millions in taxpay- er money and then leave low-income and predominantly African-American commu- nities without vital and essential services is indefensible. We need our elected officials to step up and challenge this scheduled closure using all the means available to them." Since 2013, Jackson Park Hospital has been awarded $10.5 million in state grants to renovate its labor and delivery unit and outpatient women's health facilities. Clearly, the state recognized the need to provide maternal and infant care to the surrounding community facing systemic racial and economic barriers to accessing health care. The hospital serves some of the most vulnerable communities in Chicago. Across the hospital service area, maternal morbidity rates and infant mortality rates are far higher than the national average, including in the Avalon Park area which has an infant mortality rate of 24.5 deaths per thousand live births. In its own 2018 community health assessment, the hospital noted that women in the hospital's service area were not receiving early and adequate prenatal care, and identified maternal and child health as priorities that needed to be addressed. Nurses say the hospital has been able to eliminate these critical services due to a lack of regulatory oversight by the Illinois Department of Health, which approved the closure. Recently, changes to the state over- sight process make it easier for hospitals to shutter units, including less profitable ones such as OB-GYN units. "The Illinois Department of Health is tasked with making sure the most vulnerable people in the state have access to the medical care they need, but it has abdicated its power to carry out that mission," said Myrna Dennis, a registered nurse at Jackson Park. "With these changes in regulatory oversight, it is possible the Jackson Park Hospital may be part of what could be just the first wave of hospitals in Illinois to abandon their mission to serve the women, mothers, and babies in their community." —Staff report Jackson Park RNs protest OB-GYN closure Nurses picket Tenet hospitals