National Nurses United Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN, joins Tony Award-winning playwright V (formerly Eve Ensler) tonight at 5 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. ET to present THAT KINDNESS, a play in nurses’ own words, to raise awareness about attacks on staffing ratios and nurses’ emotional health during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The California Nurses Association will hold a virtual press conference Wednesday to warn that allowing hospitals blanket permission to violate California’s RN-to-patient safe staffing law under the cover of the Covid-19 surge will inevitably lead to more patient, nurse, and other health care worker infections and deaths.

Registered nurses at Sutter Roseville will hold a press conference Tuesday, Dec. 15 to protest the recent waiver on safe staffing standards that has been granted to acute care hospitals. Nurses say they are urging Sutter Roseville to staff for safe patient care, not use the pandemic as an excuse to cut corners.

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.