Nurses Release Report Documenting Understaffing
Monday, May 12, 2014
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Registered
nurses and community allies on Monday -- International Nurses Day -- released a
new 24-page patient care report documenting scores of incidents of
understaffing at District hospitals and government agencies over the past 15
months. The report was prepared for the DC City Council, which is currently
considering
the Patient Protection Act, a bill the nurses say would sharply improve safety
in District hospitals through requiring minimum numbers of nurses/ratios per
patient. Presentation of the report, which
was filed with the Health Regulation and Licensing Administration for the DC
Department of Health and to the Mayor and Council members, followed a rally by DC RNs outside the John A.
Wilson Building where the nurses called on the Council to pass the Act.
“Every
nurse here can tell you that short staffing too often puts our patients at
risk,” said Sandra Falwell, RN, a 43-year nurse at Children’s National
Medical
Center and Vice President of National Nurses United. “With ER patients at
Providence Hospital sometimes waiting for more than 12 hours to be seen, or
three or four hours to even be triaged, it is not uncommon for their conditions
to get worse,” said Providence Hospital orthopedic nurse Rose Farhoudi,
RN.
- photo by Jay Mallin