Nurses Protest Working Conditions at Orange County Hospitals Amid Pandemic
Registered nurses from four different Orange County, California, hospitals protested Dec. 23 against declining hospital safety conditions resulting from an increase of COVID-19-infected patients.
Dozens of nurses attended the scheduled protests, which started at 6 a.m. and lasted approximately two and a half hours. They were held simultaneously in front of the Chapman Global Medical Center in the City of Orange, the South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, and the Anaheim Global and West Anaheim medical centers in Anaheim.
Nurses say they have been working double shifts with few breaks, are under-equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE), and are enduring extremely high patient-to-nurse ratios because staffing waivers have been granted to acute care hospitals.