Good Samaritan nurses in San Jose protest unsafe staffing, COVID-19 risks

That’s how a top nurses union leader outside Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose on Monday described a dispute over working conditions at the hospital. Roughly 50 nurses cheered in agreement.

Nurses on Monday protested unsafe staffing and poor working conditions at Good Samaritan Hospital, saying they have worsened because of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases and the closing of Regional Medical Center’s obstetrics department. Maternity patients from Regional Hospital were transferred to Good Samaritan for care.

Lindy Herrera, a registered nurse who works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Good Samaritan, said Monday the hospital is so short handed that nurses in the emergency room have missed taking breaks, which violates California Labor Law and the nurses’ contract with the hospital.

Rossman said hospital leaders told nurses to recycle N95 masks up to 25 times and rationed PPE gear. She said the hospital is making staffing decisions based on profit, not patient safety.

Hello from the Inside,

My work is now a dangerous thrill ride,

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Hospitals are not full to "Physical Capacity"

The are full to "Staffed Capacity"

the 3rd floor at Good Sam and several wards have been closed for months due to Covid and furloughed workers.

Patient care comes second when there are unions involved. You will notice that as an intensivist I have 25 - 30 critically ill patients under my care, presented the exact same conditions, and yet I am not bitching about it. I am doing the best I can according to my oath.

That being said, I will tell you that NONCLINICAL ADMINISTRATORS are the scum of the scum and are part responsible for destroying health care. I worked in the C-suite for 5 years before I could not take it any longer. Watching MBAs with absolutely NO TRAINING CLINICALLY trying to direct and pressure clinicians to make sure their metrics made bonus at year end was sickening. Beyond words. Additionally, most of the clinical administrative staff is sick of medicine so they sit behind a desk and tell others what to do. None of them could practice if they tried.

Administration needs to be eliminated. Physicians and nurses need to be willing to take some responsibility, learn the rules and then it is we as clinicians that need to run hospitals and health care. Administrators that are non clinically add nothing to the overall care of the patient, reduce quality, and suck money away from the patient. In a world where $0.17 of every dollar is what is spent on patient care, we have a real problem.

Yes we do. Seem it myself and experienced the paper pushing nut balls. It was exasperating. I loved patient care, still do if I could.

The want single payer even though there’s no plan of any reasonable transference but that’s their goal.

I was in a union job for 12 years in the electric utility industry. Closed shop, meaning that if you wanted the job, you had to be a union member. I must say that in my circumstance, the union was mostly a PITA, one that made mountains out of molehills constantly, and catered to the linemen versus all the other electricians and technicians in the company.

They also protected the worst performers and scolded people that wanted to excel. Equal pay, but not for equal work.

I now live in an “Open Shop” state, where you have a choice as to whether to join a union. that’s the way it should always be. My job is management these days, so no union possible.

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