Nurses at Antelope Valley Medical Center denounce racist retaliation against union leaders and the hospital’s refusal to fill open positions

Registered nurses at Antelope Valley Medical Center (AVMC) in Lancaster, California, will hold an informational picket on Tuesday, November 25, to protest management’s creation of a staffing crisis and racially-motivated retaliation against Latine nurses for their patient advocacy. The nurses are represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).

AVMC has the second busiest emergency department (ED) in California, treating 130,000 patients a year in the Antelope Valley Healthcare District, a huge area covering more than 1,500 square miles. The hospital administration expanded the ED to 40 beds last year, but they’ve refused to increase the number of nurses to care for the additional patients, jeopardizing patient care and creating an exodus of nurses leaving due to conditions that threaten their licenses. Nurses caring for ambulatory patients in the ED are often forced to monitor more than 20 patients at a time.

Who: Registered nurses at Antelope Valley Medical Center
What: Informational picket for safe staffing and respect for nurses
When: Tuesday, November 25, 6:30-8 a.m.
Where: Antelope Valley Medical Center, 1600 W. Ave. J, Lancaster, California; in front of the hospital

Hospital administration recently terminated three emergency department nurses in direct response to their vocal advocacy for safer staffing. Union leaders Emma Alva, RN, Viviana Perez, RN, and Jacquie Ferrer, RN — all Latine and senior nurses — received notices of management’s intent to terminate their employment within the past two weeks. The hospital is discriminating against Latine nurses and senior nurses who have long advocated for safer conditions. The chief nursing officer has also negatively commented on Perez’s accent in meetings and during a nurses’ training.

“One nurse and one technician caring for six patients in the emergency department is unsafe, as is patients waiting for hours to get care because there aren’t enough nurses,” said Emma Alva, RN in the emergency department. “California’s nurse staffing law requires one nurse for four patients in the emergency department, and even fewer patients depending on the severity of their condition. AVMC has refused to provide us with rational or logical explanations for their refusal to staff us properly. Instead, they retaliate against us when we speak up!”

“Management has a responsibility to listen to nurses when we advocate for safer conditions in our hospital, especially in our emergency department,” said Alva, RN. “Instead, they are punishing nurses for speaking up to pressure other nurses to stay silent and accept these conditions.”

Nurses in the intensive care unit and surgical services department are also demanding changes to very challenging schedules. Due to short staffing, some nurses are working up to 24 hours in one day, or up to five days in a row of 12-hour shifts, which puts patients at risk.

“AVMC is reducing staff by attrition and forcing remaining staffing to do more with less, which is unsustainable and creates unsafe working conditions,” said Viviana Perez, RN in the ED unit. “Some open positions are not even being posted so no one can apply. This is making our staffing crisis even worse.”

Management has also failed for over a year to fill two vacant positions for educators, who are responsible for ensuring nurse compliance with state and federal laws.

“Enough is enough,” said Perez, RN. “We are disappointed that the hospital continues to go backwards in the services we provide for our community. Our patients and our nurses deserve more resources and support, not less.”

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.