4 of 6 new traveling nurses quit
As the ongoing surge of COVID-19 strains Humboldt County’s overwhelmed healthcare system, Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka struggles to retain staff. Days after they were hired, four traveling nurses abruptly quit putting further strain on the already understaffed hospital.
Of the 42 Humboldt County residents currently hospitalized for COVID-19 related illness, nine were in ICU care, leaving only six ICU beds available to other patients, according to data posted Friday by the California Health and Human Services Agency.
Providence brought on eight new traveling caregivers last week — six intensive care unit RNS and two respiratory therapists — according to a Wednesday press statement from Providence. The nurses quit the very next day.
Ian Seldon, a spokesperson with the California Nurses Association, said the nurses left St. Joseph Hospital
due to inadequate resources.
“Apparently, however, the travelers were met without necessary resources, including access to the unit’s electronic charting system and were immediately handed full patient assignments with little in the way of orientation. So, four out of the six (travel nurses) quit,” Seldon said. “In the words of one of them, the travelers were ‘thrown to the wolves’ and with all the opportunities available to travelers these days, they just didn’t come back.”
St. Joseph Hospital nurse and Professional Practice Committee treasurer James Ladika said, “This experience has further shaken my confidence in hospital administration.”
Matthew Miele, an emergency room nurse at Providence St. Joseph Hospital, said he had noticed more traveling nurses around the hospital but did not know four had quit.
“I feel like our resources are spread very thin,” he said. “I often have to spend time at work searching for working equipment such as thermometers, IV pumps and channels or cardiac and vital sign monitoring equipment.”
Dr. Roberta LuskinHawk, MD, chief executive for Providence in Humboldt County, said the nurses’ departure was “an unfortunate and unique circumstance.”
“Some of the travelers who came to us through our request to the Medical Health Operational Area Coordinator did not stay at our hospitals,” she said. “The primary reason was that they were not familiar with our electronic medical record system — a system that is used by many hospitals. Additionally, there were issues with the onboarding of these caregivers which created a challenge for them acclimating to our hospital.”
Luskin-hawk said Providence would continue to work with the Medical Health Operational Area Coordinator to find additional staff for St. Joseph Hospital as well as Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.
“We will continue, as we have throughout the pandemic, to aggressively seek additional resources focused on supporting our caregivers as they respond to the large number of patients requiring hospital services as part of this COVID surge while caring for our community’s important health care needs from open-heart surgery and trauma care to cancer
care,” she said. “In addition to meeting the immediate needs of our communities, we are excited to be transitioning to a more widely used electronic medical record system in the coming weeks and will continue to work on additional projects that will enhance our health care delivery system over the near term and for years to come.”
Luskin-hawk noted that the Medical Health Operational Area Coordinator has had a difficult time keeping up with demand.
“The agencies appear to have greater demand than they can accommodate,” she said. “The request was updated in collaboration with Public Health and submitted (Thursday) with information on current census and capacity.”