During the pandemic, California hospitals have been bombarding state health officials for individual, temporary waivers in adherence to California’s landmark safe staffing law, which requires minimum levels of registered nurse staffing for various hospital units.

Nurses, caregivers, and community members are outraged at Palomar Heath CEO’s misinformation and blatant misrepresentation of actual critical low staffing and dangerous co-mingling of Covid-19 patients and non-Covid-19 patients assigned to nurses and caregivers.

Registered nurses and caregivers will hold a press conference on Friday, Dec.11 at Palomar Health in Poway, Calif., to declare their opposition to the hospital’s application for a waiver of state-mandated nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, which was approved by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on Dec. 9, 2020.

With the imminent public distribution of various Covid-19 vaccines and a Dec. 10 Food and Drug Administration advisory hearing on these vaccines, registered nurses and other health care workers, as well as the general public, have many questions about the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 inoculation.

The Cook County Health budget for 2021 was approved unanimously by commissioners in late November, calling for cuts to emergency care services at Provident Hospital and closing community health clinics on Chicago’s South Side. As a result, the layoffs targeting nurses and physicians at Provident Hospital leave the emergency room dangerously understaffed for surrounded communities.

“Acute moral distress is widespread among nurses caring for Covid-19 patients and they are at significant risk of moral injury,” according to “Deadly Shame: Redressing the Devaluation of Registered Nurse Labor Through Pandemic Equity,” a new white paper by National Nurses United (NNU). “Deadly Shame” provides an in-depth analysis of the devaluation of nurses’ care work, their experiences on the pandemic’s front lines, and ways to redress these issues through collective action.

Registered nurses at UC Davis Medical Center (UCDMC) will hold a virtual rally Tuesday, Dec. 8 to demand safe staffing and alert the public to patient safety concerns.

Nurses at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) will hold a virtual rally on Tuesday, Dec. 8 to demand safe staffing throughout the health system and to alert the public to their patient safety concerns during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

National Nurses United is calling on the United States Congress to urgently pass a Covid-19 relief bill and President Trump to sign that bill into law. The union urges elected officials to ensure that this Covid relief bill contains much needed economic stimulus for the American people, appropriate financial support for public health programs and state and local governments, and the critical policies needed to ensure that workers are protected during the pandemic. The union cautions that any stimulus package that includes liability waivers for employers, businesses, and other institutions, would be counterproductive to pandemic control measures and would undermine efforts to reduce the spread of the virus.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United today criticized the California hospital industry for years of hospital closures and other cuts that have led to the current crises in capacity and staffing. The union also criticized the industry for making new demands for sweeping blanket waivers to roll back years of workplace public safety rules that they warn would worsen the severity of the pandemic.