Nurses protest nurse-to-patient ratio

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION)

Intensive Care Unit capacity levels across the state have triggered Stay-at-Home Orders, as hospitals are seeing a surge of patients. 

The California Department of Public Health notified hospitals to suspend their Nurse-to-Patient Ratio asking nurses to sign staffing waivers. Already the California Department of Public Health shows 180 hospitals have requested waivers from their staff. 

While no hospitals in the Central Coast have broken the ratio, nurses were protesting today outside of Watsonville Community Hospital and later in the evening at Natividad Hospital demonstrating in solidarity. It’s a scene the Central Coast, saw earlier in the year when the California Nurses Association was demanding more Personal Protective Equipment. 

Nurses say it’s simple, the more patients a doctor or nurse gets, the less care a patient receives. They blame the hospitals for a lack of planning. 

“From day one of this pandemic, everyone knew that winter was coming. That a monster surge was going to slam us at the start of the flu season,” said a nurse during a virtual news conference held by the California Nurses Association protesting the state’s decision.