Press release from National Nurses Organizing Committee:
Registered nurses at HCA Healthcare’s Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., will hold a rally tomorrow, June 2, to demand that hospital management take immediate action toward recruiting and retaining staff nurses, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) has announced. Mission RNs say dangerous conditions in their hospital necessitate immediate action to protect patient care and safety.
Mission Hospital is forcing nurses to work while there is a deficit of more than 400 RNs hospital-wide. As a result, one intensive care unit nurse routinely has three patients, instead of one or two, a gravely unsafe RN-to-patient ratio. Nurses across the hospital are working in excess of 13 hours a day with no meal or rest breaks. These high RN-to-patient ratios and long hours with no breaks endanger patient care and safety.
“It is unconscionable for HCA to impose these unsafe conditions on our patients, and we won’t stand for it,” said Amy Waters, RN, who works in Mission’s pediatric intensive care unit. “We will do what it takes to hold HCA accountable.”
WHO: RNs at HCA’s Mission Hospital
WHAT: Rally for Recruitment and Retention
WHEN: Thursday, June 2, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
WHERE: Corner of Biltmore Drive and Hospital Drive
Nurses are demanding Mission Hospital stop creating unsafe conditions for patients. When nurses have too many patients to care for, patients do not get optimal care. Mission RNs say management must immediately implement safe RN-to-patient ratios and cease all efforts to undermine RNs’ scope of practice.
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Nancy Lindell, division director public and media relations for HCA Healthcare North Carolina Division/Mission Health, responds:
Mission Hospital continues to heavily recruit and offer robust sign on bonuses. Staffing at Mission Hospital is reviewed every four hours and staffing resources are shifted to respond to changes in patient acuity, sometimes placing charge nurses into care roles to best support our patients and staff. Like every hospital in the country we are having to respond to the shortage of trained healthcare providers with innovative solutions such as: international nurses, alternative care delivery models, and academic partnerships—including the recent announcement of funding additional faculty members at three local colleges and university for their nursing education programs.
Many of your people refuse to get vaccinated against a deadly disease for POLITICAL REASONS so all of the above is ingenuous at best.