Tag Archives: unsafe staffing

Unsafe Staffing Story: I wouldn’t send my own family to the hospital I work at!

13 Feb

MNA Nurses fill out hundreds of Concern For Safe Staffing forms online each month. The story below is just one example of how unsafe staffing conditions inside Minnesota hospitals continue to have negative – and sometimes even deadly – consequences for patients and nurses. (Note: Due to HIPAA privacy laws for patients and concerns for potential workplace retaliation by employers against RNs, we do not identify the specific nurse and/or patient(s) involved in each story in this space.)

Today’s Story: I don’t feel patients are being safely monitored on this unit. With all the cardiac, respiratory, fall risk, and incontinence issues that the majority of  cardiacpatients have; it’s not safe for one nurse to adequately monitor 6 patients. I wouldn’t want my family or loved ones to be there, and I can’t recommend our unit to anyone that asks how the care is at [my hospital].

More information:

Unsafe Staffing Story: Too Many Babies, Not Enough Nurses

10 Feb

MNA Nurses fill out hundreds of Concern For Safe Staffing forms online each month. The story below is just one example of how unsafe staffing conditions inside Minnesota hospitals continue to have negative – and sometimes even deadly – consequences for patients and nurses. (Note: Due to HIPAA privacy laws for patients and concerns for potential workplace retaliation by employers against RNs, we do not identify the specific nurse and/or patient(s) involved in each story in this space.)

Today’s Story: Charge nurse had 3 moms and 2 babies; one requiring constant help with newborn cares and breastfeeding. One staff nurse had 5 moms and 5 babies, including a new Caesarean birth and a new vaginal delivery with significant postpartum hemorrhage. Another nurse had 5 moms and 5 babies-  2 mothers requiring constant help with breastfeeding and 2 babies requiring bottle feeding every 2-3 hours. One nurse had 4 moms and 4 babies including a new C-section birth with MRSA precautions and a non-English speaking new vaginal delivery. Nursery RN was a  casual staff member with 3 babies under her care most of the shift.

More information:

Must Read: A Dying Baby, Not Enough Nurses … Hospital Management’s Response? Order Pizza!

8 Feb

MNA Nurses fill out hundreds of Concern For Safe Staffing forms online each month. The story below is just one example of how unsafe staffing conditions inside Minnesota hospitals continue to have negative – and sometimes even deadly – consequences for patients and nurses. (Note: Due to HIPAA privacy laws for patients and concerns for potential workplace retaliation by employers against RNs, we do not identify the specific nurse and/or patient(s) involved in each story in this space.)

Today’s Story: The night shift was 7 nurses short so assignments were again increased. Requiring nurses to take additional patients to their already heavy loads was totally unsafe. A nurse on the unit with a dying baby was given another patient, severely limiting her ability to provide comfort to the family. I had a baby who would be finishing antibiotics, and then could go back to the newborn nursery, but I was unable to obtain any orders for transfer and required treatments during the shift, so the baby stayed in our unit under my care. (Later) I was notified that I would be getting a 35 week old admit and another patient who was on a ventilator and had a chest tube. This infant had (received) 1:1 care on the previous shift. I was unable to obtain any orders for the 35 week old infant for 1.5 hours because the providers (nurse practitioners) got called to two simultaneous deliveries of premature infants. Assignments were completely unacceptable. A patient who is dying should never be paired with another infant. I was unable to assist any of my co-workers and they were unable to assist me. Nurses did not get breaks, although (pizza) was ordered by management as a consolation. We want more nurses, not food! Our patients deserve quality care and they are not getting it!

More information:

Unsafe Staffing Story: Kids’ ICU Dangerously Thin on RN Staffing

1 Feb

MNA Nurses fill out hundreds of Concern For Safe Staffing forms online each month. The story below is just one example of how unsafe staffing conditions inside Minnesota hospitals continue to have negative – and sometimes even deadly – consequences for patients and nurses. (Note: Due to HIPAA privacy laws for patients and concerns for potential workplace retaliation by employers against RNs, we do not identify the specific nurse and/or patient(s) involved in each story in this space.)

Today’s Story: (From a hospital unit dealing exclusively with infants) - Working three nurses short in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is very unsafe. We have 17 vents [patients with ventilators, or machines that essentially breathe for patients and require continuous monitoring] and 21 acutely ill patients.

More information:

MNA President Linda Hamilton’s Response to Minnesota Adverse Events Report’s Release

26 Jan
MNA President Linda Hamilton

MNA President Linda Hamilton

Have you or a family member ever had the unfortunate experience of suffering from a pressure ulcer? In addition to being extremely unpleasant and painful, pressure ulcers can become so deep that they result in damage to your muscles, bones, tendons and joints.

And pressure ulcers – also commonly known as bedsores – are almost always preventable when proper staffing levels are adhered to.

Yet last week’s release of Minnesota’s Eighth Annual Adverse Events Report noted that incidents involving pressure ulcers spiked more than 19 percent statewide in 2011. What state hospital executives didn’t mention in spinning away that alarming statistic was that numerous national studies have shown a direct correlation between inadequate nurse staffing levels and an increase in conditions including pressure ulcers, pneumonia, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock/cardiac arrest, urinary tract infections and more.

The numbers don’t lie – safe staffing levels save lives and improve patient outcomes. While many will remember that the Twin Cities nurses’ strike during the summer of 2010 shined a white-hot spotlight on the issue, unsafe staffing has been a problem in Minnesota for decades.

As patients, you deserve better. You and your loved ones should never suffer without need from pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections or other conditions that can be prevented with adequate RN staffing levels.

Money is not the issue. Keep in mind that during the great recession of 2009, Twin Cities hospitals had their largest profit margins (6.5 percent) in a decade! It’s not that hospital executives can’t pay to adequately staff their hospitals. They just don’t want to.

My fellow nurses will continue to remain vocal about the needless suffering we in our patients see as a result. And data such as the recently released Adverse Events Report will continue to lend credibility and credence to our concerns.

Sincerely,

Linda Hamilton, RN
President, Minnesota Nurses Association

Unsafe Staffing Story: A “rushed and chaotic” feeling

22 Jan

MNA Nurses fill out hundreds of Concern For Safe Staffing forms online each month. The story below is just one example of how unsafe staffing conditions inside Minnesota hospitals continue to have negative – and sometimes even deadly – consequences for patients and nurses. (Note: Due to HIPAA privacy laws for patients and concerns for potential workplace retaliation by employers against RNs, we do not identify the specific nurse and/or patient(s) involved in each story in this space.)

Today’s Story: Extremely busy, high acuity with no available  resources, nurses came from other units to help as able, but were not able to perform tasks necessary such as del, OR, scrub. No breaks taken. I felt patients received basic care … once patient was safely delivered and deemed stable enough, I had to move on to more urgent patients needs and hope for the best. I made a point of visiting today the 3 patients I had who delivered for me yesterday to apologize for the rushed and chaotic feeling of the unit and lack of any TLC.

More information:

MNA RN on Unsafe Staffing Levels: Enough is Enough!

18 Jan

This note from a frustrated MNA RN puts words to the frustration too many Nurses are feeling:

“We are getting tired of working without the safe amount of  nurses. We have enough upper  management to sink a ship and they want to add more COs. We need Bedside  Nurses – the ones that do the work, the ones who take care of the patients, the  ones who work overtime to help out the short staff.  We need a state law telling the hospitals how many patients the nurse can safely take care of. How many RNs don’t even get a break on their whole entire shift? Do the  CNOs ever miss a meal???? Sorry for the editorial, I’m just tired of all this crap.”

MNA Statement on vulnerable adult crime bill introduced in MN Legislature

12 Jan

In light of today’s announcement of a new bill in the Minnesota Legislature that would make neglecting a vulnerable adult a more serious crime, the Minnesota Nurses Association issued the following statement:

“As nurses, nothing is more important to us than ensuring our patients – especially the most vulnerable – are protected and given the best care and treatment possible.  We applaud the idea of protecting vulnerable adults, which is why nurses have been at the forefront of the movement to highlight the need for adequate staffing inside our hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities.

While every caregiver – including nurses – is and should be held accountable for the quality of his or her own care, it is important we don’t lose sight of the bigger issue here: The chronic and systemic understaffing of our hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities where care is delivered.  However, if the individual caregiver does not have the ability to increase staffing when necessary, patients will remain vulnerable.

Study after study has shown the direct connection between unsafe staffing levels and adverse events for the patients entrusted to our care. And while we expect personal responsibility and accountability for caregivers of all stripes, our lawmakers should also demand the same type of accountability from the health care facilities and their managers who have the ability to ensure safe staffing.

No patient – especially our most vulnerable adults and children – should ever be neglected and suffer without need. And while there are indeed instances of caregivers failing to do their job properly, there are also countless cases of patients suffering needlessly due to unsafe staffing levels inside our hospitals and nursing homes.

We hope that the issue of unsafe staffing levels will be addressed with the same fervor by state legislators as today’s announcement.

Formed in 1905, the Minnesota Nurses Association represents more than 20,000 nurses in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. MNA is also a founding member of National Nurses United (NNU), which represents more than 170,000 RNs across the United States. Learn more at www.mnnurses.org.”

Fairview Southdale RNs Stand Strong For Patient Safety, Safe Staffing Levels

20 Dec

Three cheers for Fairview Southdale RNs!

So proud of the MNA Nurses at Fairview Southdale and how they recently stood up for their patients and their profession regarding staffing grids!

Here’s what happened:

Management wanted to reduce staffing levels and cut FTEs during the grid reviews this summer. The nurses didn’t agree and the hospital requested that there be mediation as provided for in the contract. There are 6 units involved. The first three units had mediation on 11/30 and there were 30 staff nurses who attended and told their stories and objected to any decrease in staffing.

Last Friday, the other three units had mediation. Stewards from two of the units really stepped up to the challenge and turned nurses out! There were about three dozen nurses who attended (including the tri-chairs). One of the units had 25% of the nurses in attendance and another had 30%!

The nurses were outstanding and spent two hours in each of the first two sessions and just over an hour in the third telling management that there are systems issues that need fixing, that they are needing to do more and more as other departments get cut, that they are no longer able to say they are proud of the care they are able to give, etc. One RN was especially powerful in asking, “Can you tell me specifically what I can do to take more patients? Can you tell me what I do that I can stop doing? How can I be more efficient?”

The VP for nursing had no answer. She repeated a couple of times that she knows the nurses all work hard and that they aren’t sitting around reading magazines and knitting. The nurses pushed back over and over and management looked pretty weary at the end of the day. The nurses said they did not object to taking on more or caring for more patients – if management could provide a list of what they could stop doing so they could free up time. MNA nurses repeated over and over that they are the safety net, and that when management cuts other departments, the work doesn’t go away – rather the nurses pick up even more.

As one of the MNA Chairs said at the end of the day: “To a person, your stories were powerful and eloquently told, and your passion for your profession and commitment to your patients was impressive to everyone in the room … Enjoy the weekend knowing that you couldn’t have done any more than you all did incredibly well to influence management. Our nurses are an amazing group of people, and you should all be proud of the extraordinary care you give every day.”

Couldn’t say it better ourselves! Way to go Fairview Southdale Nurses! We’re proud of you and thankful for your leadership and solidarity!

Here’s what a typical day looks like in terms of the number of Unsafe Staffing reports that continue to flood MNA’s inbox

6 Sep

Make sure to keep filling out these Concern For Safe Staffing forms either online or via the MNA App for iPhone or Droid! Your insight and information are critical as we continue to document unsafe staffing and the negative impact on our patients and our profession.

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