More than 16,000 California and Nevada nurses, including dozens from St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach, will leave their stations to form picket lines this Friday.
The California Nurses Association has been locked in a bitter contract dispute with Catholic Healthcare West since March, when workers’ contracts from three major Catholic health care chains came up for renegotiation, said Shum Preston, CNA spokesperson.
Health care workers are asking CHW to include California Occupational Safety and Hazard Association protocols written in “black and white,” said union negotiator and registered nurse Sandy Shukla.
With the CalOSHA safety standards written directly into the contracts, nurses will have an easier time enforcing policies that will protect health care workers and patients alike, she said.
“It is our belief that the lack of proper infection control procedures has the threat of turning hospitals into places where disease is transmitted instead of places where it is contained,” Preston said.
St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach has brought in “scabs,” which the hospital reports will provide the same level of service as the registered nurses occupied by the one-day strike, Preston said.
“Any nurse would walk off the picket line in a true emergency situation,” Preston said.
He added that nurses feel this strike is part of their legal and ethical duty to advocate for their patients.
“We want to take a stand not only for H1N1, but for health care in general, and we want other states to recognize as well that nurses can take a stand for the safety of their patients and their communities,” Shukla said, “and they will be heard.”
The School of Nursing at Cal State Long Beach will not be participating in the strike, as they are not affiliated with any unions, said Beth Keely, assistant director of the nursing department.
Tension between CNA members and CHW escalated mid-July when Sacramento nurse Karen Anne Hays contracted swine flu and died a few days after due to flu-related complications.
“She’s somebody we’re thinking about quite a bit in this strike. While not certain, we believe that hospital was not living up to the proper and industry-leading standards,” Preston said. “There seems to be a correlation between cutting corners on patient safety and the virus spreading to nurses.”
Representatives from CHW were not available for comment and did not return phone calls.
Shukla had not heard of any nurses at St. Mary’s contracting the H1N1 virus, but she said information would not necessarily reach her due to the protected nature of medical records.
CNA has also negotiated for increased access to medical equipment, such as N-95 respirators. However, the specialized masks may be removed from the bargaining table after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement last Thursday to release up to half of the state’s 51 million emergency stockpile.
The move, which CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called “long overdue,” was immediately followed by response from CNA and the California Nurses Organizing Committee.
“Our public officials should not need to wait until exasperated nurses are prepared to strike, and hospitals — many of which have stalled on providing the masks — have no more excuses for guaranteeing they are fully available to everyone,” DeMoro said in the prepared statement.
Schwarzenegger’s decision is the result of CNA’s efforts in increasing awareness in California, Preston said, and it is their hope that hospitals will no longer make excuses when it comes to protecting their staff and patients.
While the high-grade face masks provide health care workers with added protection, the evidence surrounding effectiveness of N-95 respirators is inconclusive, said Helene Calvet, Long Beach health officer.
“There are so many issues here with compliance. Will the health care workers actually use them? Are they used in conjunction with hand washing? If they wear a mask but don’t wash their hands, they’re still going to end up getting the flu,” Calvet said.
At St. Mary’s, where Shukla has worked for more than 18 years, nurses stand united and prepared to fight on Oct. 30 as the “last line of defense in patient advocacy,” Shukla said.
“If this one-day strike doesn’t get us to the table and what we want, then we’ll have to consider something else,” she said. “We’re not giving up until we know that our communities are safe and our nurses are safe.”