REDDING, Calif. — Nurses at Shasta Regional Medical Center held a vigil Wednesday evening, demanding safer staffing conditions. Nurses say they have been voicing concerns to management for months about operational changes they believe jeopardize patient care. “We have spoken to management, we wanted to know the reason for these changes, and we have been told this is just the way it’s going to be,” Michelle Gaffney, RN and Chief Nursing Representative said.
The California Nurses Association claims that management’s decisions, including closing the night shift pharmacy and consolidating post-anesthesia care and gastrointestinal procedures into one room, as well as the hospital promoting a “go-lean” staffing model endangers patients and staff. They report that these changes have led to nurses mixing drugs at patients’ bedsides, hygiene and infection issues and incidents of workplace injuries and violence. The hospital has reportedly had to divert patients to other facilities due to staffing shortages.
Mary Beaver, Radiology Technician who has been with the hospital for over two decades noted, “We had several months where there was no coverage, and we are a level one stroke alert, so we ended up having to do diversion. It was several months of us not having a night CT tech and so we had no coverage some of us would cover x-ray because there was no x-ray coverage either.”
Shasta Regional representatives stated that the procedural changes align with standards at other hospitals nationwide, saying,
“These adjustments are designed to enhance patient care by improving efficiency, ensuring safety and maintaining the high standards our community has come to expect.”
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