Registered nurses and caregivers at Palomar Hospital in North San Diego County will hold an informational picket on Wednesday, Sept. 19 to highlight concerns about chronic short staffing and other working conditions that contribute to high turnover and undermine the quality of patient care. The California Nurses Association represents Palomar RNs, and Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union (CHEU), a CNA affiliate, represents other caregivers, including certified nursing assistants, imagine technologists, food and nutrition services workers. CNA and CHEU represent a total of 3,000 employees at Palomar Hospital. 

What: Informational Picket
When: Wednesday, Sept. 19, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. 
Where: Palomar Medical Center- Escondido, 2185 Citracado Parkway, Escondido 

“We demand that Palomar make patient safety its first priority, and respect its patients, and its nurses, and its caregivers,” says Sue Phillips, registered nurse. “Palomar is refusing to address the chronic short staffing throughout the hospital. The situation is very stressful, with nurses working to utter exhaustion and going without breaks or meals.”

In addition, nurses are flagging problems with management’s scheduling practices including demanding nurses work extra shifts, and forcing nurses to work in units without providing the specific training necessary.

“Palomar is undermining patient safety. Nurses who have years of experience working in specific units are being reassigned to other units without management providing the necessary training. In addition, many nurses are being pushed to work extra shifts. These nurses are having to go without sleep in order to work these extra hours,” says Phillips.

Multiple studies show health care worker fatigue increases the risk of adverse events, and compromises patients’ safety. Insufficient staffing and excessive workloads also contribute to stress and fatigue.

Certified nursing assistants say they are literally running to keep up with their patients’ needs as Palomar cut the number of certified nursing assistants per unit down from three to two.

“Patients need to be cleaned, to be turned, to be helped to the bathroom, and we must make sure no one falls,” says Imelda Aldana, a certified nursing assistant with Palomar for more than ten years. “We cannot rush our patients, they are often elderly and they are all sick. They deserve our time and we want to give them the best care. We work 12 and a half hours shifts and we are running all the time, and often we go without breaks because there is no one to relieve us. It is very frustrating for us and for the patients, we just don’t have all the people we need on the floor.”

The chronic short staffing includes a lack of adequate cooks, housekeepers, transport staff and other caregivers. Nurses and caregivers say the hospital is losing experienced and qualified workers because Palomar is not its honoring its commitment to patient care.

“We are disappointed in the direction Palomar Healthcare District is going as it fails to honor its promises to patients,” says Gil Millan, a cook who has worked at Palomar for 30 years. “When Palomar fails to staff housekeeping, or the kitchen adequately, experienced workers leave. When we are short staffed, it is hard to do our job in a timely manner, and that makes it difficult for us to give the best care to our patients.”