RNs at HCA’s Mission Hospital will rally on June 2 to demand immediate action from management

Registered nurses at HCA Healthcare’s Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., will hold a rally on June 2 to demand that hospital management take immediate action toward recruiting and retaining staff nurses, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) announced today. Mission RNs say dangerous conditions in their hospital necessitate immediate action to protect patient care and safety.

Mission Hospital is forcing nurses to work while there is a deficit of more than 400 RNs hospital-wide. As a result, one intensive care unit nurse routinely has three patients, instead of one or two, a gravely unsafe RN-to-patient ratio. Nurses across the hospital are working in excess of 13 hours a day with no meal or rest breaks. These high RN-to-patient ratios and long hours with no breaks endanger patient care and safety.

“It is unconscionable for HCA to impose these unsafe conditions on our patients, and we won’t stand for it,” said Amy Waters, RN, who works in Mission’s pediatric intensive care unit. “We will do what it takes to hold HCA accountable.”

• Who: RNs at HCA’s Mission Hospital
• What: Rally for Recruitment and Retention
• When: Thursday, June 2, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• Where: Corner of Biltmore Drive and Hospital Drive

Nurses are demanding Mission Hospital stop creating unsafe conditions for patients. When nurses have too many patients to care for, patients do not get optimal care. Mission RNs say management must immediately implement safe RN-to-patient ratios and cease all efforts to undermine RNs’ scope of practice.

National Nurses Organizing Committee is a national union and professional organization for registered nurses, advance practice nurses, and RN organizations who want to pursue a more powerful agenda of advocacy, promoting the interests of patients, direct care nurses, and RN professional practice. NNOC is affiliated with National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 175,000 members nationwide.