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10 N A T I O N A L N U R S E 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 O C T O B E R | N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 NEWS BRIEFS CALIFORNIA I n 2016, security breaches were happening nearly every day in labor and delivery (L&D) at Sutter Roseville Medical Center in Roseville, Calif., a 328-bed facility with 1,000 nurses. "Visitors going to the cafeteria would get lost and just wander through our unit," said Andrea Seils, an L&D nurse, chief nurse representative, and member of the professional practice committee. "We didn't have a security guard in my unit. Doors were left wide open. We wanted to get the unit locked." In other departments, doors were often left open, unmonitored, or unlocked. Patients released from the emergency department were walking into the family birth area. People could enter from multiple entrances, including the loading dock. Only three security guards staffed the entire 791,000-square-foot campus, which includes a rehabilitation facility and medical plaza. The guards were usually working in the emergency department; they did not do any rounding but they would respond to calls on an as-needed basis or if things were slow in the ED. The proverbial straw on the camel's back came in March 2016, when a person experi- encing homelessness was discovered living in the ceiling of a storage area of the L&D unit, which was near the cafeteria and a back entrance to the hospital. Luckily, noth- ing happened, but the incident clearly demonstrated the hospital's lack of security plans and staffing and galvanized the nurses to act and hold their employer accountable to providing a safe environment. "One of our strongest and most cohesive units is labor and delivery," said Renee Altaffer, RN and chair of the PPC commit- tee. "They were willing to voice their securi- ty concerns." That spring, the nurses initiated a concerted campaign to improve the safety and security of Sutter Roseville. It would take time, but the nurses persisted and eventually achieved the results they wanted. Their campaign demonstrated that nurses can proactively win safety improvements through systematically organizing themselves and using all the tools and tactics available to them. Any PPC or group of nurses at any of our facilities can model a campaign on the actions of the Roseville nurses. The nurses started by sending letters to the people in charge of security and hospital policy. They made multiple attempts to meet Nurses lead the charge for workplace violence prevention at Sutter Roseville