Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/518097
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 A P R I L | M AY 2 0 1 5 CALIFORNIA F ighting dangerous, chronic understaffing and contract take- aways that threaten the livelihood of RNs and their families while their employers make millions, even billions, in profits, more than 5,000 nurses across Cali- fornia went on one-day or two-day strikes over April 30 and May 1. The RNs work at five various Sutter Health hospitals in North- ern California, Kaiser Permanente Los Ange- les Medical Center, and at two Providence Health & Services hospitals in Southern Cali- fornia. Some of the Sutter and Providence facilities locked nurses out for an additional four days as a form of retaliation for striking. Predictably, management's consistent failure to adequately and safely staff their hospitals with enough RNs was a top reason for nurses to call their strikes. Management demands for cuts and the shifting of costs in health coverage for RNs and their families are also a major focus for nurses at many of the hospitals, especially RNs who work for the Sutter Health chain. These cuts not only burden already-stretched RN households, but hurt the retention of experienced RNs. "Across the country, nurses are unified in insisting that hospitals improve RN staffing which far too often is compromising patient safety and other patient protections," said NNU Co-President Karen Higgins, RN. Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center RNs protested chronic shortstaffing at their hospital which they say regularly leads to delays in care, patients being held in the ER for hours or days at a time, increased risk of patient falls and accidents, and an inability of RNs to take needed meal and rest breaks because of inadequate staffing. "We the nurses have been demanding more staffing for months but our desperate calls for help have fallen on deaf ears," said Tinny Aboga- do, one of 1,100 RNs at Kaiser Permanente's Los Angeles Medical Center. "The short- staffing puts patients at risk through unwar- ranted delays in care. We will not remain silent when our patients are facing undue danger and lack of care because Kaiser won't invest in improving staffing so that we can provide safe, quality care for our patients." At the Sutter hospitals, nurses also cited persistent shortstaffing that puts patients at risk. In addition, Sutter is demanding that RNs and their families pay more—in 130 areas of their health coverage—on a slew of items, with newly proposed copays, co-insurance and elevated out-of-pocket maximums as high as $10,000 per year. This would mean huge increases in out-of-pocket costs for hospitaliza- tion, lab work, diagnostic procedures, durable medical equipment, and a host of procedures and services. "We're fighting for patient safety, we're fighting against unsafe staffing. We believe patients deserve better," said Jennifer Barker Tilly, an emergency room RN and one of 1,000 RNs represented by the California Nurses Association at Sutter Roseville Medical Center. "I'm inspired by my colleagues who are Nurses stage major strikes across California NEWS BRIEFS