UCSF Nurses to Picket Hospital Over “Dangerous” New Staffing Policies

RNs Could See Patient Case Loads Jump 25 to 100%

Protesting what they call a “dangerous and frightening” reduction in medical resources, Registered Nurses from UCSF will picket their hospital this Wednesday, calling on administrators to immediately withdraw their proposal to increase patient loads for nurses by 25 to 100 percent.

What:      Nurses Picket UCSF Over Dangerous Patient Care Proposal
Where:   UCSF, 505 Parnassus, SF
When:    Wednesday, June 10, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The dispute arises from UCSF’s long-time refusal to schedule “break relief nurses” who step in to care for patients when the bedside RN takes her legally-mandated meal and rest breaks.  The administration proposes to solve this by pulling one nurse per shift in every unit of the adult hospital and dedicating them to break relief.  This proposal would have the effect of significantly increasing the workload of the nurses who care for UCSF patients.  Nurses working on medical-surgical units could see their patient load jump from four to five, for example, an increase of 25 percent. Nurses in the ICU could see an increase from one patient to two, despite the fact that their critical acuity demands the undivided attention of a single nurse.

The Agency for Health Research and Quality in May of 2007 laid out the dangers of this approach, finding that every patient a nurse is assigned (above four) leads to a 7 percent increased chance of mortality, in addition to a 53 percent higher chance of respiratory failure and a 17 percent increase in medical complications.

“UCSF administration has ignored state law that requires patients to have adequate nursing care at all times, including when their bedside nurse is on their breaks. Rather than solving this staffing issue, UCSF is instead forcing through staffing cuts that will place our patients in grave danger. We cannot allow these staffing cuts to happen,” said Maureen Dugan, RN on 13 Long, a medical-surgical unit that cares for patients recovering from abdominal, urologic or head and neck surgery.

“UCSF is a unique hospital because we receive some of the sickest patients from around the world. It is imperative that our patient safety procedures and our nurse staffing reflect this,” said Brady Logue, RN on 9 Long, the unit that cares for post-surgical patients after kidney, liver, or pancreas transplant surgery.

The California Department of Public Health recently fined UCSF $50,000 for two separate incidents where patients were placed in immediate jeopardy, including one patient death. These are the highest administrative penalties allowed by state law for patient care violations.