Nurses in multiple states protest over 'lack of preparedness'
"Protecting our patients is our highest priority, but it becomes much harder when we don't have the safe protections," one nurse said.
Nurses protest in front of Research Medical Center April 1, 2020 in Kansas City, Mo. The workers were among several groups nationwide protesting HCA Healthcare hospitals claiming the hospital chain put staff and patients at risk during the coronavirus pandemic because of a lack of personal protective equipment.Charlie Riedel / AP
April 2, 2020, By Janelle Griffith
Nurses at hospitals in multiple states are protesting what they describe as one of the nation's largest hospital chains' "lack of preparedness" amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Nurses Union, which represents 10,000 registered nurses at 19 hospitals managed by HCA Healthcare in California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada and Texas, is demanding that the hospital chain provide optimal personal protective equipment (PPE) for nurses and other staff.
HCA Healthcare spokesman Harlow Sumerford the company is doing everything it can to equip patient care teams to provide safe, effective care to the people they serve.
"The National Nurses Union is trying to use this crisis to advance its own interest — organizing more members," Sumerford said in a statement to NBC News.
"The pandemic has strained the worldwide supply of personal protective equipment, including masks, face shields and gowns, a challenge that is not unique to HCA Healthcare or any other health system in the United States," Sumerford said, in part. "While we are doing everything in our power to secure additional supplies, and we are following CDC protocols for using and conserving PPE, the worldwide shortage is a reality that we are addressing with realistic, workable solutions."
Nurses at HCA’s Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, will deliver a petition to hospital managers on Thursday with their concerns about hospital preparedness in the battle against COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Some nurses at HCA hospitals have reported that they have had to work without proper protective equipment and are told to unsafely reuse masks. Nurses at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, Florida, said they were told they could not wear masks while working because it "scared the patients," according to Jean Ross, a registered nurse and president of National Nurses United.
HCA Healthcare's spokesman did not address specific allegations raised by the National Nurses Union in the company's statement Thursday.
NBC News reached out to Central Florida Regional Hospital for comment about this allegation but did not immediately hear back.
"Protecting our patients is our highest priority, but it becomes much harder when we don't have the safe protections which puts us in danger of becoming infected," Angela Davis, a registered nurse who works in a unit dedicated to treating coronavirus patients at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, said in a statement. "If we are no longer able to be at the bedside, who will be there to care for our patients?"irus outbreak
The union president said HCA Healthcare can afford to properly prepare for the pandemic, noting that over the past decade, the hospital chain has made more than $23 billion.
"For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable," Ross said.
Gary Mousseau, a registered nurse who works in endoscopy at Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Florida, said it has been "disheartening" for nurses across the country "to see HCA’s poor response" to their concerns while facing the gravest public health crisis in a century.
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'When We Are Infected No One Is Safe': Nurses Nationwide Protest Over Lack of Coronavirus Protective Equipment
"For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable."
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Nurses and supporters participate in a vigil at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, during a shift change for nurses, amid the global coronavirus pandemic on March 30, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Nurses at 15 hospitals across the country are set to stage protests both Wednesday and Thursday over what they say is a dangerous lack of protections for healthcare workers and demanding their employers provide respirators, gowns, gloves, and other protective equipment to help them safely fight the coronavirus pandemic.
"When we are infected, we become a real danger of infecting everyone else around us, patients, hospital staff, and a risk to our own families."
—Kim Smith, registered nurse
—Kim Smith, registered nurse
National Nurses United (NNU) helped organize the protests at hospitals run by HCA Healthcare, the country's largest and wealthiest for-profit hospital operator, in seven states. The union represents 10,000 nurses at HCA hospitals, which the union says has left its nurses even less prepared for the pandemic than healthcare providers at most other facilities in the nation.
The union posted a video on social media of nurses detailing their harrowing experiences from the past several weeks as the outbreak has spread to every state in the U.S., killing more than 3,900 people so far.
Listen to––and protect––nurses. All our lives are on the line.— Bonnie Castillo (@NNUBonnie) April 1, 2020
"PPE, or personal protective equipment, is virtually non-existent at my hospital," one nurse in Oakland, California, said.
"I had a patient who was having respiratory issues and was not able to get a respiratory treatment because the respiratory therapist did not have the proper mask," said another who works in Auburn, California.
"Listen to—and protect—nurses. All our lives are on the line."
—Bonnie Castillo, NNU
—Bonnie Castillo, NNU
Despite making $23 billion in profits in the last decade, NNU said in a statement, HCA Healthcare nurses in states including California, Florida, and Texas have fewer N95 respirators and other equipment to keep them from contracting the new coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, than healthcare providers at other hospitals.
Just 7% of nurses at HCA Healthcare facilities say they have enough PPE to protect staff and patients if there is a surge in coronavirus patients in their hospital, compared with 19% of nurses in general.
Only 35% of nurses in the HCA network report having access to N95 respirators, compared with 52% of nurses nationwide.
"For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable," said Jean Ross, president of NNU.
"Nurses at various HCA hospitals are reporting that they have had to work without proper protective equipment," Ross added. "Nurses say they are not informed when they are exposed to an infected patient. They are told to unsafely reuse masks and at one hospital they are even being told not to wear masks because it 'scared the patients.'"
One hospital in Florida delayed informing nurses that they had potentially been exposed to the coronavirus, while nurses at Corpus Christi Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas say they were told to report to work while waiting for the results of COVID-19 testing, potentially exposing others.
Calling nurses "canaries in the coal mine" in an op-ed published Wednesday at Common Dreams, registered nurse Amy Silverman raised similar concerns, denouncing the lack of transparency at hospitals across the country regarding the exposure of healthcare providers:
You deserve to know the truth: healthcare workers are falling ill by the thousands, some are dying, an unknown number are in critical condition, and there are no tests. Hospitals aren't testing their workers unless they have obvious symptoms, but we all know that sources of infection aren't limited to those of us who seek care in emergency rooms. Hospitals should be testing all of their workers in order to understand how to control infection within their facility—and the White House regularly broadcasts support of this strategy by relaying the message that "everyone who needs a test will get a test" yet the opposite is happening: we are spreading the virus throughout our healthcare systems, within our families and communities.
HCA Healthcare nurses stressed that allowing them to fall ill due to a lack of protective equipment will put many others in danger.
"When we are infected no one is safe," said Kim Smith, an intensive care nurse in Corpus Christi. "When we are infected, we become a real danger of infecting everyone else around us, patients, hospital staff, and a risk to our own families."
Nurses and hospital workers dealing with Covid-19 patients in the United States staged protest and shared posts on social media, crying about their lack of supplies like surgical masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against the deadly virus.
Please Listen to Nurses Now (square, with captions) from National Nurses United on Vimeo.
HCA nurse protests slam hospital preparation for COVID-19
Registered nurses in seven states protested this week at 15 HCA Healthcare hospitals over what they say is a lack of COVID-19 preparedness, according to the union that represents them.
National Nurses United, which claims more than 150,000 members nationwide, said it wants Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA to provide healthcare workers with optimal personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators or powered air-purifying respirators and other head-to-toe coverings.
"Nurses at various HCA hospitals are reporting that they have had to work without proper protective equipment," Jean Ross, RN, president of National Nurses Unite said in a news release.
"Nurses say they are not informed when they are exposed to an infected patient," she said. "They are told to unsafely reuse masks, and at one hospital, they are even being told not to wear masks because it scared the patients."
Registered nurses protested April 1 at facilities in California, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Texas. Protesting also occurred April 2 at additional Texas and Florida facilities.
Separately, registered nurses at HCA's Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., delivered a petition to hospital officials April 2 expressing their concerns, according to NNU.
HCA, a for-profit hospital operator, pointed to its efforts to equip healthcare workers to provide safe, effective care, and accused the union of "trying to use this crisis to advance its own interest — organizing more members."
"The pandemic has strained the worldwide supply of personal protective equipment, including masks, face shields and gowns, a challenge that is not unique to HCA Healthcare or any other health system in the United States," a statement from HCA said.
"While we are doing everything in our power to secure additional supplies, and we are following CDC protocols for using and conserving PPE, the worldwide shortage is a reality that we are addressing with realistic, workable solutions," HCA added.
HCA said these steps include enacting universal masking for employees; appointing personal protective equipment stewards in hospitals; and creating strategically located personal protective equipment distribution centers on hospital campuses. The hospital operator said it also has staffing contingency plans to ensure hospitals are prepared for an influx in patients; is ensuring pay for healthcare workers during the pandemic; and is offering scrub-laundering for workers who care for COVID-19 patients.
A full list of protests is available here.
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43,000 healthcare jobs lost in March
Healthcare lost 43,000 jobs in March, with job losses primarily in ambulatory healthcare services, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The job losses — which occurred the same month the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic — included offices of physicians (-12,000), dentists (-17,000) and other healthcare practitioners (-7,000). At the same time, hospitals added only 200 jobs last month, compared to the 7,800 positions they added to the U.S. economy in February.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia issued a statement on the March jobs report, saying it reflects the initial effect on U.S. jobs of the public health measures being taken to fight against COVID-19.
"It should be noted the report’s surveys only reference the week and pay periods that include March 12; we know that our report next month will show more extensive job losses, based on the high number of state unemployment claims reported yesterday and the week before," said Mr. Scalia.
Overall, healthcare employment had been growing. In the 12 months prior to March, industry employment had grown by 374,000, according to the bureau.
This story was updated at 9:50 a.m. CDT April 3.
‘When we are infected no one is safe’: Nurses nationwide protest over lack of coronavirus protective equipment
April 1, 2020 By Common Dreams
“For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable.”
Nurses at 15 hospitals across the country are set to stage protests both Wednesday and Thursday over what they say is a dangerous lack of protections for healthcare workers and demanding their employers provide respirators, gowns, gloves, and other protective equipment to help them safely fight the coronavirus pandemic.
When we are infected, we become a real danger of infecting everyone else around us, patients, hospital staff, and a risk to our own families.”
—Kim Smith, registered nurse
National Nurses United (NNU) helped organize the protests at hospitals run by HCA Healthcare, the country’s largest and wealthiest for-profit hospital operator, in seven states. The union represents 10,000 nurses at HCA hospitals, which the union says has left its nurses even less prepared for the pandemic than healthcare providers at most other facilities in the nation.
The union posted a video on social media of nurses detailing their harrowing experiences from the past several weeks as the outbreak has spread to every state in the U.S., killing more than 3,900 people so far.
Listen to––and protect––nurses. All our lives are on the line.
Full video
https://t.co/8uIniRXctU #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/9mebUEibin
— Bonnie Castillo (@NNUBonnie) April 1, 2020
“PPE, or personal protective equipment, is virtually non-existent at my hospital,” one nurse in Oakland, California, said.
“I had a patient who was having respiratory issues and was not able to get a respiratory treatment because the respiratory therapist did not have the proper mask,” said another who works in Auburn, California.
“Listen to—and protect—nurses. All our lives are on the line.”
—Bonnie Castillo, NNU
Despite making $23 billion in profits in the last decade, NNU said in a statement, HCA Healthcare nurses in states including California, Florida, and Texas have fewer N95 respirators and other equipment to keep them from contracting the new coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, than healthcare providers at other hospitals.
Just 7% of nurses at HCA Healthcare facilities say they have enough PPE to protect staff and patients if there is a surge in coronavirus patients in their hospital, compared with 19% of nurses in general.
Only 35% of nurses in the HCA network report having access to N95 respirators, compared with 52% of nurses nationwide.
“For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable,” said Jean Ross, president of NNU.
“Nurses at various HCA hospitals are reporting that they have had to work without proper protective equipment,” Ross added. “Nurses say they are not informed when they are exposed to an infected patient. They are told to unsafely reuse masks and at one hospital they are even being told not to wear masks because it ‘scared the patients.'”
One hospital in Florida delayed informing nurses that they had potentially been exposed to the coronavirus, while nurses at Corpus Christi Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas say they were told to report to work while waiting for the results of COVID-19 testing, potentially exposing others.
Calling nurses “canaries in the coal mine” in an op-ed published Wednesday at Common Dreams, registered nurse Amy Silverman raised similar concerns, denouncing the lack of transparency at hospitals across the country regarding the exposure of healthcare providers:
You deserve to know the truth: healthcare workers are falling ill by the thousands, some are dying, an unknown number are in critical condition, and there are no tests. Hospitals aren’t testing their workers unless they have obvious symptoms, but we all know that sources of infection aren’t limited to those of us who seek care in emergency rooms. Hospitals should be testing all of their workers in order to understand how to control infection within their facility—and the White House regularly broadcasts support of this strategy by relaying the message that “everyone who needs a test will get a test” yet the opposite is happening: we are spreading the virus throughout our healthcare systems, within our families and communities.
HCA Healthcare nurses stressed that allowing them to fall ill due to a lack of protective equipment will put many others in danger.
“When we are infected no one is safe,” said Kim Smith, an intensive care nurse in Corpus Christi. “When we are infected, we become a real danger of infecting everyone else around us, patients, hospital staff, and a risk to our own families.”
‘When we are infected no one is safe’: Nurses nationwide protest over lack of coronavirus protective equipment
April 1, 2020 By Common Dreams
“For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable.”
Nurses at 15 hospitals across the country are set to stage protests both Wednesday and Thursday over what they say is a dangerous lack of protections for healthcare workers and demanding their employers provide respirators, gowns, gloves, and other protective equipment to help them safely fight the coronavirus pandemic.
When we are infected, we become a real danger of infecting everyone else around us, patients, hospital staff, and a risk to our own families.”
—Kim Smith, registered nurse
National Nurses United (NNU) helped organize the protests at hospitals run by HCA Healthcare, the country’s largest and wealthiest for-profit hospital operator, in seven states. The union represents 10,000 nurses at HCA hospitals, which the union says has left its nurses even less prepared for the pandemic than healthcare providers at most other facilities in the nation.
The union posted a video on social media of nurses detailing their harrowing experiences from the past several weeks as the outbreak has spread to every state in the U.S., killing more than 3,900 people so far.
Listen to––and protect––nurses. All our lives are on the line.
Full video
https://t.co/8uIniRXctU #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/9mebUEibin— Bonnie Castillo (@NNUBonnie) April 1, 2020
“PPE, or personal protective equipment, is virtually non-existent at my hospital,” one nurse in Oakland, California, said.
“I had a patient who was having respiratory issues and was not able to get a respiratory treatment because the respiratory therapist did not have the proper mask,” said another who works in Auburn, California.
“Listen to—and protect—nurses. All our lives are on the line.”
—Bonnie Castillo, NNU
Despite making $23 billion in profits in the last decade, NNU said in a statement, HCA Healthcare nurses in states including California, Florida, and Texas have fewer N95 respirators and other equipment to keep them from contracting the new coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, than healthcare providers at other hospitals.
Just 7% of nurses at HCA Healthcare facilities say they have enough PPE to protect staff and patients if there is a surge in coronavirus patients in their hospital, compared with 19% of nurses in general.
Only 35% of nurses in the HCA network report having access to N95 respirators, compared with 52% of nurses nationwide.
“For the wealthiest hospital corporation in the United States to show such disregard for the health and safety of its caregivers, is disgraceful and unconscionable,” said Jean Ross, president of NNU.
“Nurses at various HCA hospitals are reporting that they have had to work without proper protective equipment,” Ross added. “Nurses say they are not informed when they are exposed to an infected patient. They are told to unsafely reuse masks and at one hospital they are even being told not to wear masks because it ‘scared the patients.'”
One hospital in Florida delayed informing nurses that they had potentially been exposed to the coronavirus, while nurses at Corpus Christi Medical Center in Corpus Christi, Texas say they were told to report to work while waiting for the results of COVID-19 testing, potentially exposing others.
Calling nurses “canaries in the coal mine” in an op-ed published Wednesday at Common Dreams, registered nurse Amy Silverman raised similar concerns, denouncing the lack of transparency at hospitals across the country regarding the exposure of healthcare providers:
You deserve to know the truth: healthcare workers are falling ill by the thousands, some are dying, an unknown number are in critical condition, and there are no tests. Hospitals aren’t testing their workers unless they have obvious symptoms, but we all know that sources of infection aren’t limited to those of us who seek care in emergency rooms. Hospitals should be testing all of their workers in order to understand how to control infection within their facility—and the White House regularly broadcasts support of this strategy by relaying the message that “everyone who needs a test will get a test” yet the opposite is happening: we are spreading the virus throughout our healthcare systems, within our families and communities.
HCA Healthcare nurses stressed that allowing them to fall ill due to a lack of protective equipment will put many others in danger.
“When we are infected no one is safe,” said Kim Smith, an intensive care nurse in Corpus Christi. “When we are infected, we become a real danger of infecting everyone else around us, patients, hospital staff, and a risk to our own families.”
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