Protest rally at Board of Regents meeting

Registered nurses, residents,  interns, and other health care workers at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., will hold a rally on Wednesday, May 6, outside the UC Board of Regents meeting to highlight their patient safety concerns, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today.  

Currently, patients are being cared for in both tents and hallways in the Westwood emergency department due to short staffing. Nurses, residents, interns, and other health care workers say these are not appropriate treatment areas, and they undermine the quality of patient care and impede the ability to discuss private medical issues.  

“Our Westwood emergency department boarding crisis coalition, which includes nurses and other health care workers, delivered a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures on March 26, demanding that the unsafe conditions in the emergency department be addressed and corrected immediately,” said Ellie Savova, RN, who works in UCLA’s emergency department. “Nurses and resident physicians are banding together and using our collective union power to advocate for the safety of our patients.”

Who: UCLA RNs and UPTE/CIR coalition partners
What: Action for Patient Safety
When: Wednesday, May 6, 7:30-9:30 a.m.
Where: UC Regents Meeting at the UCLA Luskin Center (425 Westwood Plaza)

The nurses at UCLA are represented by California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), the residents and interns are represented by Committee of Interns and Residents-Service Employee International Union (CIR-SEIU), health care workers, including pharmacists and social workers, are represented by University Professional and Technical Employees-Communication Workers of America-9119 (UPTE-CWA).

“Caring for patients in tents and hallway beds is not medicine, it’s crisis management,” said Dr. Diana Dayal, MD, a resident physician and CIR/SEIU member. “These makeshift spaces strip patients of dignity, compromise privacy, and make it harder for us to deliver the safe, evidence-based care every patient deserves. We are speaking out because this is a patient safety issue, plain and simple. UCLA must invest in staffing, capacity, and systems that allow us to treat patients in real clinical settings.”

“Emergency department boarding at UCLA has reached a level incompatible with safe and ethical patient care,” said Dianne Sposito, RN in the emergency department. “Nurses are demanding working conditions that are safe and that will allow patients to receive the highest standard of care.”

The nurse, physicians, and health care workers are demanding a number of steps towards a remedy, including an in-person meeting with the UCLA Health executive management; creation of a dedicated UCLA hospital-wide throughput committee; expanded staffed inpatient capacity during predictable surge periods; increase in staffing and ensured safe spaces for patient care; increased transparency in shadow bed and hallway bed utilization. 

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. CNA represents more than 5,500 registered nurses at UCLA.