Nurses protest staffing policy at Modesto hospital. Patients deserve better, union says

Nurses held a protest Tuesday morning outside Doctors Medical Center to draw attention to claims of short staffing at the Modesto hospital.

The registered nurses, represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, said the hospital is mismanaging nurse staffing, which causes patient care conditions to deteriorate. The union charged that almost every hospital unit lacks adequate staffing.

According to the union, nurses were forced last week by hospital management to leave their shifts early. That forced the remaining nurses to care for a larger number of patients.

In a formal statement, Doctors Medical Center said: “The labor union that represents our registered nurses held a picketing event today outside of Doctors Medical Center. While we value all of our employees who are represented by the union, we are disappointed that they took this action instead of continuing with good faith discussions with hospital leadership to address their concerns. Our hospital remains fully operational and our staff’s focus, as always, is on providing exceptional quality patient care.”

Dozens of nurses formed a picket line, carrying signs reading “Some cuts don’t heal” and charging the hospital’s owner is putting profits over patients.

Lynn Warmerdam, a registered nurse in case management, said a new staffing matrix was rolled out in February that limits how many nurses can work in each unit based on the number of patients in each unit. In addition, the work hours for break relief nurses were reduced, and hospital units are staffed with fewer nursing assistants and techs, which increases the workload for RNs, she said.

“This has the result of a lot of stress for our nurses,” Warmerdam said. “We want so much to give our patients the best care, as they deserve. When we don’t have the staffing, the patients wait longer for pain medication, they wait longer for bedpans and getting their beds cleaned.”

Warmerdam, a nurse for 33 years, said the DMC nurses have attempted to talk with hospital management about the staffing situation, but the parent company, Tenet Healthcare, has not been willing to discuss the issues. Nurses suspect the same staffing matrix will be implemented at other hospitals owned by Tenet.

The California Nurses Association represents about 1,200 registered nurses at the Modesto hospital.