Nurses from Gilroy are joining more than a thousand others from
across the state in a Sacramento protest today.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Nurses from Gilroy are joining more than a thousand others from across the state in a Sacramento protest today.
The registered nurses will convene for a state hearing on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to delay a hospital staffing law that was set to tighten nurse-to-patient ratios Jan. 1.
The steeper ratios of one nurse to five patients in medical, surgical and mixed units are the next phase of the 1999 Safe Staffing Law, which started by setting 1-to-6 ratios that went into effect last year.
In November, Gov. Schwarzenegger issued an emergency order suspending the new ratios until 2008. The 60,000-member California Nurses Association filed suit against the governor in December and today is sending about 1,500 nurses to a hearing at the Department of Health Services.
Some of the nurses will testify that the governor’s order would virtually eliminate safe staffing protections in emergency rooms, which the union says would result in longer waits for care and more dangerous conditions for patients, and postpone for three years improved care conditions in medical units.
Since the 1-to-6 ratios went into effect Jan. 1, 2004, hospitals, including Saint Louise Regional Hospital, have said it is difficult to meet the requirements, particularly when nurses take breaks or when an unexpected surge of patients arrives.
