National Nurses United

of many services senior patients use to another hospital that is difficult for them and their families to access. These kinds of problems are pervasive throughout the Kaiser system. Patients who do manage to get admitted to the hospital are endangered because of short staffing in all areas of the hospital and overreliance on health information technolo- gy, say Kaiser RNs. "I've had the amazing privilege of doing work in developing coun- tries. I get blood faster for a woman who is dying in Haiti than I am able to get it here," said Amina Umma, a Kaiser Oakland labor and delivery RN, during a strike rally as she pointed at the hospital, her voice quavering in anger. She went on to describe how the hospital's blood bank is severely understaffed and that workers are crying because they know they are not providing blood to the units quickly enough and lives hang in the balance. "This is a serious time that the nurse are here speaking to you because of what we really, really are dealing with, regardless of whatever propaganda Kaiser is putting out in terms of 'thrive.' We are not thriving and the patients definitely are not thriving." Even in outpatient and home settings, Kaiser patients are getting shortchanged, report RNs. Tonya Lyons, a home hospice RN, said that she is outraged to learn that Kaiser is "diverting" hospice patients to outside agencies because they haven't hired enough RNs. "These patients paid to have the quality of care from nurses like us, here at Kaiser," said Lyons at a rally. "When our patients need to be seen, they deserve to be seen by a registered nurse at Kaiser. So when my patients ask me, 'Why are you striking?' I tell them, 'Because Kaiser's greed will not replace the clinical judgment of registered nurses at bedside patient care in the home.'" Over the past three years, Kaiser RNs estimate that the company has failed to fill some 2,000 RN and NP positions. When Ebola became a reality for RNs in the Unit- ed States in September, Kaiser RNs put all other bargaining aside and focused talks on Ebola safety standards and equipment. But Kaiser has refused to bargain over this issue. "I just can't say how critical it is what you're doing," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United. "This is the most outrageous thing I've ever seen. When you cannot put the right equipment in place and provide the right health and safety measures for your nurses and patients, and you make billions, and billions, and billions in profit? It's obscene. It's wrong. They just have no moral center." Nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital, Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, and Providence Hospital in the District of Columbia were striking over similar chronic understaffing and patient care issues and, of course, their workplaces' failure to ensure their health and safety by providing the equipment and hands-on training needed to care for potential Ebola patients. Sutter Tracy is in a fight for a first contract and the latest strike was their second in three months. For Watsonville nurses, this was their third strike. For Providence nurses, this was their first strike for their first contract. "As of now, I haven't seen the equipment. I haven't had any training. Like, zero train- ing," said Fidelis Kweyila, a Providence RN to a television reporter. His colleague, Kelly Fields, an RN who works in the Providence emergency room, also told the station that at "a meeting, they showed us a Tyvek suit and hood stapled to a board. Do we actually physically have any of these that I've been able to lay my hands on? None." Nurses say they have already cared for two patients who traveled from West Africa and were showing Ebola-like symptoms, but thankfully did not test positive for Ebola. The bottom line, nurses agreed, is that hospitals need to make sure there are enough registered nurses to safely care for patients and that you need to protect those nurses and other healthcare workers. "You can make all the shiny, technologically savvy hospitals that you want," said Katy Roemer, a Kaiser RN and member of the California Nurses Associ- ation/National Nurses Organizing Commit- tee board of directors. "They will never take the place of the care of a registered nurse." —Staff report N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 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 5 understaffing, Clockwise across all pages from top left of opposite page: Nurses on strike at Kaiser Vacaville; Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C.; Kaiser Sacramento call center; Kaiser Rich- mond; Sutter Tracy Community Hospital; Kaiser Manteca; Watsonville Community Hospital

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