National Nurses United

FLORIDA R egistered nurses at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissim- mee, Fla., held a protest in November and a vigil in December to condemn management's scheme to drasti- cally slash services to mothers and other patients giving birth, parents, and infants. The scheme, which included closing the nurs- ery unit, officially began on Dec. 12. However, the hospital began making operational changes in units providing birth care this past summer, including reassigning nurses to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) without adequate training. The nurses gathered to condemn the impending shutdown of the hospital nursery and to declare publicly their commitment to advocate for improvements in care throughout the hospital. "We are speaking up for our patients because they cannot speak up for them- selves," said Ginnie England, an RN who has worked in the nursery for eight years. "It is clear to us that HCA's service cuts are discriminatory and will hit our low- income, high-risk patients and their babies hardest. The units serving mothers and newborns have been short-staffed for many months. We want the hospital to proac- tively work to retain seasoned RNs and hire more nurses, not reduce services to some of our hospital's most vulnerable patients, including newborns." The hospital has eliminated the dedi- cated nursery nurses who provided care for most of the issues that may arise with babies generally born healthy. Now this role is assigned to nurses who are watching other patients in labor, which is not safe. The scheme also entails expanding use of the NICU, yet this unit has lost more than 50 percent of its RN staff over this past year. To compensate for staffing shortfalls, the hospi- tal is assigning RNs who will have only completed a minimum of NICU-level train- ing by March 2023. "I have spent years working in the nurs- ery and I am acutely aware of how much new parents depend on my colleagues and me to support them and their newborns," said England. "We want the public to know that we are outraged by these service cuts, and that we will continue to advocate for improvements in care." According to nurses, the hospital serves a large number of high-risk patients, many of whom are low-income, non-English-speak- ing immigrants who have not received adequate prenatal care. Labor and delivery RNs report that it is already a challenge to adequately monitor deliv- eries for these patients due to short staffing. But under the new scheme, RNs would have even less time for monitoring, as they would also be tasked with providing care for the newborns, who had previously been cared for by a nursery nurse from the moment they are born. Now that the nursery is closed, there will be no respite care for new parents; they will be expected to care for their newborns, regardless of their postpar- tum condition. Now the hospital plans to send those babies to the NICU, using ancil- lary staff with far less training and non-NICU RNs. "HCA is claiming that their plans to close the nursery are 'evidence-based' and 'family- centered,' but the truth is that our patients will be at risk if HCA is successful in imple- menting this plan," said Cassandra Gomes, an RN in the labor and delivery unit. "I am very proud to be part of the team of nurses who are standing united to be the voice for our patients, including our newborns, in the face of HCA's corporate greed." —Martha Wallner Nurses condemn closure of nursery unit RNs at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital protest shutdown 2022 Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Publication title: National Nurse. Publication number: USPS 0807-560, ISSN 2153-0386. Filing date: 10-1-2022. Issue frequency: Quarterly, with combined issues in January-February-March, April-May-June, July- August-September, and October-November-December. Number of issues published annually: 4. Annual subscription price: $40. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 155 Grand Ave., Oakland, Alameda County, California, 94612. Contact person: Lucia Hwang. Telephone: (510) 273-2200. Complete mailing addresses of headquarters or general business office of publisher: Same as above. Publisher: California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, 155 Grand Ave., Oakland, California, 94612. Editor: Lucia Hwang. Managing edi- tor: None. Owner: California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, 155 Grand Ave., Oakland, California, 94612. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount: none. Tax status: Has not changed during preceding 12 months. Publication title: National Nurse. Issue date for circulation data below: April-May-June 2022. Extent and nature of circulation: Registered nurse members of CNA/NNU and subscribers. For the following, the first number represents the average number of copies of each issue during preceding 12 months and the second number represents the number of copies of the single issue published nearest to filing date. Total number of copies (net press run): 153,135; 153,500. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 142,531; 146,294. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 0; 0. Paid distribution outside the mails including sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid distribution outside USPS: 0; 0. Paid distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: 46, 46. Total paid distribution: 142,577; 146,340. Free or nominal rate outside-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0; 0. Free or nominal rate in-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0; 0. Free or nomi- nal rate copies mailed at other classes through the USPS: 0; 0. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail: 0; 0. Total free or nominal rate distribution: 0; 0. Total distribution: 142,577; 146,340. Copies not dis- tributed: 10,558; 7,160. Total: 153,135; 153,500. Percent paid: 100%; 100%. Information in this statement will be published in the October-November-December 2022 issue of this publication. 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 2 2 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 9

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