SLO County nurses protest workplace conditions at Tenet Health hospitals
Health workers have been pushed to the brink during the coronavirus pandemic, including in San Luis Obispo County.
On April 27, registered nurses at nine Tenet Health locations in California, including two hospitals in SLO County, picketed in front of their employers to protest understaffing and high turnover rates, according to a news release from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) union.
Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton and Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo are owned by Tenet Health Central Coast, the company CNA/NNU nurses were protesting.
Tenet Health Central Coast said in a statement that the protests were happening while the health system is negotiating with the union.
Nurses held an informational picketing session from 8 to 9 a.m. at Twin Cities and a public action event from noon to 1 p.m. at Sierra Vista on April 27.
“For the past two years Tenet Healthcare has failed to prepare for the pandemic, prioritizing its profits over its responsibility to provide safe patient care,” Laura Bruce, a registered nurse at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, said in the release.
Tenet Health recorded $991 million in profits in 2021, according to the release.
The protest comes amid a record shortage of nurses and other health workers, a problem exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Registered nurses protest Tenet Health facilities throughout California
The nurses’ union said in the release that Tenet Health has violated the safe staffing ratio laws outlined by the California Code of Regulations, Title 22.
“We demand that Tenet comply with state hospital staffing laws by taking immediate action to retain and recruit the staff we need to provide quality care,” Bruce said in the release. “They have the resources!”
Based on these guidelines, nurses in the ICU should have a maximum of two patients or fewer if the case is acute enough, but that nurses currently juggle as many as four patients, the release said.
Similarly, telemetry unit nurses should have a max of four patients under the law, or fewer, but currently have assignments of up to six patients, the release said.
“Due to the chronic understaffing, nurses have been working without meals and rest breaks. We know that this is bad for patients and nurses because it heightens the risk of workplace injuries and medical errors,” Maria Ibarra, RN, of Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, said in the release.
“Many experienced nurses have made the difficult choice to leave rather than jeopardizing their nursing license due to unsafe working conditions,” Ibarra said.
Many nurses that were hired during the peak COVID-19 years, between 2019-2021, at Tenet Health locations quit as a result of the working conditions, the release said.
Of the nurses hired during those two years at Twin Cities, 40% have since quit, the release said.
Another concern highlighted by the nurses’ union is the increase in penalty pay versus increasing staffing levels at the hospital, according to the release.
“Rather than invest in hiring more nurses who can provide adequate relief for RNs to safely take legally required rest and meal breaks, the hospital opts to pay nurses penalty pay, expecting RNs to sacrifice their much-needed breaks,” the release said.
Penalty pay increased by more than 50% at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center between 2020-2021, the release said.
Tenet Health Central Coast said in a statement that hospitals are “fully operational and our staffs’ focus, as always, is on providing exceptional quality patient care.”
“While we value all of our nurses who are represented by the union, we are disappointed that the union is taking this action. We are currently negotiating with the union, bargaining in good faith to reach an agreement,” Tenet Health Central Coast said in a statement.
Protest at Tenet Health comes amid nursing shortage
A 2017 study on nursing demand showed the state of California will have an estimated shortage of nearly 45,000 nurses by 2030 — projections that came out before the COVID-19 pandemic upended health systems.
“Like many hospitals across the country, we have been facing staffing challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, and we remain committed to doing everything possible to stay well-staffed,” Tenet Health Central Coast said in the statement.
“To support our care teams, we have been exercising all options available to us. We are working with our staffing agency to bring traveler nurses onboard and we are continuously working to recruit additional nurses,” Tenet Health Central Coast said.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 9:43 AM.
