Patients nationwide are backing up in emergency rooms waiting for beds that sit unused because of persistent staffing shortages. But it is difficult, even in this data-driven world, for the public to understand just how serious the problem is in San Diego County.
RN Nicole Brunner, left, and respiratory therapist Amanda Navarro wheel a COVID-19 positive patient from the emergency room to the ICU at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla on Monday, Jan. 3, 2021.If a unit specifies, for example, no more than five patients per nurse, he said, charge nurses, who are supposed to assigned to serve as a resource for the nurses they supervise are often being assigned patients.
“I have seen where there are night shifts where they’re required to take as many as six patients,” Hart said. “That definitely is out of ratio.”In a statement, Kaiser said it has hired 339 additional nurses in San Diego since June, part of a hiring blitz that has included 2,700 nurses across Southern California. The health care giant insisted that it is keeping up with state requirements.
The governor’s coronavirus pandemic emergency declaration, which is still in effect until early next year, allows hospitals to request temporary exemptions to nursing ratios in emergency situations, but the CDPH said none are currently active.The question is, does violating nursing ratios equate to an erosion in the quality of patient care?
“There is strong evidence that when nurses are overloaded with patients, safety problems occur, both for patients and nurses at risk of injuries,” Phillips said. Sidhu, the United Nurses representative for Kaiser, said that a meeting between labor leaders and Kaiser executives Wednesday proposed incentive payments for nurses to work more hours during the current shortage — $450 extra per day shift and $700 at night.Arriving during the holidays, cash is usually a motivator to get people to work more than they otherwise would. But Sidhu said he was astounded to learn that worker representatives rejected that proposal.
While better pay is surely a motivator for some, especially those working under short-term “traveler” contracts, it’s clear that medical providers have already pulled this particular lever quite a lot.attests, the wage gap between one provider and another has narrowed as competition, which intensified in 2021, only accelerated into 2022.
To bad we fired a bunch of them for lack of vaccination.