{"id":37,"date":"2021-03-12T05:22:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T05:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/?p=37"},"modified":"2021-03-12T05:22:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T05:22:34","slug":"california-nurses-declare-victory-as-state-tells-hospitals-all-waivers-of-safe-staffing-standards-expire-by-feb-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/2021\/03\/12\/california-nurses-declare-victory-as-state-tells-hospitals-all-waivers-of-safe-staffing-standards-expire-by-feb-8\/","title":{"rendered":"California nurses declare victory as state tells hospitals all waivers of safe staffing standards expire by Feb. 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, more than 100,000 RN members of the California Nurses Association declared victory when the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)\u00a0announced\u00a0it will not approve for hospitals any new expedited waivers of the state\u2019s landmark safe staffing ratios and all existing waivers end by Feb. 8 \u2014 with some even sooner if the state determines so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredible victory for patients and nurses, because we know that safe staffing saves lives,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

said\u00a0Zenei\u00a0Triunfo-Cortez, RN and a president of the California Nurses Association and its national organization, National Nurses United. \u201cIt was our collective action as a union that defeated the money and lobbying power of the hospital industry, which we know is focused on the bottom line, not safe patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hospital employers have, since last summer, used the Covid pandemic as an excuse to begin applying with CDPH for waivers of California\u2019s safe staffing standards, which specify for various hospital units the maximum number of patients that can be assigned to one nurse \u2014 with adjustments made for severity of patient illness. For nurses, optimal staffing is paramount to ensuring the safety of and quality of care for patients, and Covid had\u00a0already severely strained staffing since care is more complicated, patients are the sickest they\u2019ve seen, and many staff are unable to work because they themselves had contracted Covid.<\/p>\n

\"\"In December, the staffing crisis worsened when CDPH allowed hospitals to automatically obtain blanket \u201cexpedited waivers\u201d of safe staffing ratios for critical departments such as the intensive care unit and emergency room, among others. Nurses repeatedly warned that the understaffing in their hospitals was unsafe and untenable.<\/p>\n

Nurses have been protesting all waivers of safe staffing standards, arguing that patients need more, not less, care during Covid and that the state was actually rewarding hospitals for manufacturing staffing problems by canceling traveling nurse contracts, failing to fill open RN positions, still doing elective surgeries, laying off and furloughing nurses, and more.<\/p>\n

Nurses have staged hundreds of direct actions inside and outside their hospitals in defense of safe staffing standards, including a mass mobilization most recently on Jan. 27; held statewide as well as hospital chain-wide press conferences for media; and sent almost 6,000 emails in protest to CDPH.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win reinforces what we have learned over the decades in defending safe staffing standards against multiple attacks: Fighting back together works,\u201d said Triunfo-Cortez. \u201cBut we must continue to stay united and vigilant in protecting and enforcing the safe staffing standards we need to provide the kind of nursing care we know our patients deserve. Because we know this won\u2019t be the last time the industry tries to get rid of ratios.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, more than 100,000 RN members of the California Nurses Association declared victory when the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)\u00a0announced\u00a0it will not approve for hospitals any new expedited waivers … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-fitness","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/102\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}