Omicron intensifies nurses’ need for protection and safety measures
I’ve worked as a nurse for nearly 40 years, including working nonstop during COVID-19. I’ve described the first year or two of this pandemic as a “hot mess” in Florida, but now I believe we are deep into the “dumpster fire” stage.
For nurses, our failures as a country to control this virus are culminating in the worst infection and hospitalization surge we’ve ever experienced.
That’s why nurses around the country took action recently — to demand basic safety measures and protections we should’ve had from day one.
We want to provide our patients with the care they need and deserve, which is why we need to immediately resolve a nationwide staffing crisis and the lack of national, enforceable workplace protections.
Since the pandemic’s early days in 2020, nurses have been saying that if hospital employers and government officials don’t do what we need to control this virus, that there may not be a nurse to take care of you when you are in that hospital bed.
That day is here.
Nurses are out sick all around the country and those still at work are dangerously overloaded with patients. We nurses will always fight to be by our patients’ side, but we can’t be there if we’re sick ourselves or the hospital simply doesn’t staff enough of us.
Despite what you may have heard, the United States is not experiencing a nursing shortage. What we’re really seeing is a shortage of nurses willing to risk their licenses, health, or the safety of their patients by working in unsafe conditions.
Our employers were cutting corners on staffing to boost profits long before COVID19. Now, they are seeking to make the crisis conditions the new normal, even though poor staffing puts patients at risk.
Studies have shown that when nurses are assigned too many patients, the patients are at an increased risk for preventable medical errors, avoidable complications, increased length of stay, readmissions and even death. Studies have also shown that assigning nurses too many patients to safely care for at once also leads to ongoing moral distress and job dissatisfaction.
As a labor and delivery nurse, I’ve seen this staffing crisis firsthand as I’m called upon to treat COVID-19 patients. Of course, I work to make sure every patient gets the best care we can provide, but switching from labor and delivery to COVID-19 raises safety concerns for newborns and parents — concerns I’ve struggled to get management to take seriously.
Even before the pandemic, we’ve been raising alarms about retention and attrition among nurses here in the Sunshine State. I’ve even thought of retiring myself, but I just don’t feel I can leave my co-workers at the mercy of hospital management in this prolonged crisis. We need more nurses, and the only way to get them is for our bosses to create better, safe working conditions in our facilities.
That’s why we took action on Jan. 13, in Florida and across the country. Hospitals must increase staffing levels with permanent staff nurses, and we’re ready to advise them on growing the pool of available nurses. We need proper cross-training for current staff nurses so that we feel ready to work across departments, especially critical care.
We also need our so-called elected “leaders” to actually show leadership and follow the science.
As the omicron variant has exploded across the country, President Joe Biden’s administration has announced moves ripping away protections for health-care workers and the public. That’s why we’re demanding the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issue a permanent COVID-19 health-care standard to solidify the hard-won emergency temporary standard (ETS) issued last June — which OSHA has announced it intends to rescind with no permanent standard in place.
Nurses are saying enough is enough. We need to come to work knowing we’ll be safe so that we can keep our patients safe. We demand our employers and government officials protect and support us. Nurses may seem like superheroes, but we’re just human beings, and we need our communities to stand with us so we can all get through this together.
Marissa Lee works in the labor and delivery unit at Osceola Regional Medical Center. She is a vice president of National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the country.
Nurses are saying enough is enough. We need to come to work knowing we’ll be safe so that we can keep our patients safe. We demand our employers and government officials protect and support us.