Citing a desire for improved staffing and a strengthened voice in patient care protections, registered nurses at Coral Gables Hospital in South Florida voted by 57 percent to join National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida.

Registered nurses at Providence Saint John’s Health Center will hold an informational picket to protest the administration’s refusal to address chronic short staffing, which jeopardizes patient safety.

The new collective bargaining agreement was ratified on July 27 with 98 percent of RNs’ support. The board of directors of Hazel Hawkins voted unanimously to approve the new contract at their July 28 board meeting.

Florida Medical Center nurses have been in negotiations since March 2022 for a new contract with little to no movement on key issues.

NNU sent a letter to the CDC urging the agency to take immediate action in the face of elevated transmission of Covid-19 around the country, the dominance of the extremely contagious and immune evasive BA.5 variant, and the development of additional Omicron subvariants.

RNs at HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital will hold an outdoor action on Mon., July 25, to protest hospital management’s refusal to address chronic short staffing at the facility and the impact on patient care.

HCA agreed to hire 34 more full-time RNs to provide meal and rest breaks for nurses. Nurses say this will improve patient care, as studies clearly show that nurses who are fatigued and exhausted are more likely to make errors.

A group of organizations representing millions of women across the country is urging the U.S. Senate to pass the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, a bill that would protect health care and social service workers from violence on the job.