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Asheville -- April 21, 2022 In a press release the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), announced the Asheville, North Carolina, hospital's registered nurses will hold a speak-out on Thursday, April 21, to demand that HCA ensure safe patient staffing in all units throughout the hospital.
Over the past two years, nurses have left Mission Hospital due to poor working conditions created by HCA management's decisions, according to nurses at the hospital. Moral injury and moral distress have resulted from the hospital's poor working conditions, which have led to a recruitment and retention crisis.
"Nurses become nurses because they want to be there to provide high-quality medical care and emotional support as their patients heal or struggle with illness and disease,” said Jeanne Mould, RN at Mission Hospital. “But you can’t provide that care when you are literally running from room to room just hoping you will not miss something important. We need time to breathe, time to spend with a grieving family member, or to educate a scared patient. The time to provide this support is not a luxury, but is a necessity for our patients’ health and it is integral in keeping nurses at the bedside.”
Nurses are now being forced to work in units where they lack the experience, support, and expertise necessary to provide critical care to specific patient populations because HCA has refused to increase its core staffing levels.
"It is not right or safe to expect a telemetry nurse, who is highly trained to provide care to cardiac patients, to be abruptly reassigned without training, to an ICU unit or to the emergency room,” said Drummond. “Forcing a nurse to work with patients without the appropriate training is a recipe for disaster and moral distress. However, HCA employs this unsafe practice because management refuses to hire more nurses. It is time for that to change and for HCA to put our patients before profits.”
Speak-out to demand safe patient staffing at Mission Hospital
Thursday, April 21 8:00 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Mission Hospital at corner of Hospital Dr. and Biltmore Ave., Asheville, N.C.
Wnctimes by Marjorie Farrington
