ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Nurses who work at the Sutter Roseville Medical Center are protesting new California emergency staffing waivers that would allow hospitals to increase the nurse-to-patient ratio.
The nurses were joined by patients, family, and community members near the hospital.
On Dec. 11, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration began issuing nurse-to-patient ratio waivers to help with staffing needs. The waivers allow hospitals to put more patients with nurses in some facilities including Intensive care units, step down units, telemetry units, emergency medical services, and medical/surgical units.
Nurses who work in ICU’s that have been granted the waiver may treat three patients instead of two, Newsom said in a Tuesday press conference.
“So, just stretching resources and again empathy and respect to those human beings, these frontline healthcare workers, these nurses in particular that are just doing heroic work,” Newsom said Tuesday.
Nurses with Sutter Roseville Medical Center are urging hospital officials to staff for safe patient care. They argue the waiver program is an effort to use the pandemic as an excuse to cut corners.
“Safe staffing saves lives. Waiving the ratios will make things less safe for the patients and the community we serve,” said Meredith Piggee, a Sutter Roseville registered nurse. “The hospital had months to plan for this surge, and lowering the amount of staff who take care of patients is not the answer.”
The union representing Sutter Roseville nurses, the California Nurse Association and National Nurses United, said the waiver program is a rollback of safe staffing standards that could put patients, nurses, and other healthcare workers at risk in California.
“Nurses have been working under enormous strain, putting their lives and safety in jeopardy, without enough personal protection equipment, and without sufficient hospital engineering controls to reduce the spread of infection that have turned hospitals into COVID-19 zones,” CNA/NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN, said.
Sutter Roseville has not announced whether it will seek staffing waivers.
“Patient and staff safety is our highest priority, and we remain committed to staffing by acuity and adhering to staffing ratios whenever feasible under these extraordinary circumstances,” a Sutter Health spokesperson said.
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