Stretched thin, nurses call for Newsom to end stringent nurse-to-patient ratios
KTVU s Jesse Gary reports.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Recently scores of nurses rallied outside hospitals in multiple cities around the state. These nurses have been running like a marathon, only to ask them to sprint at the end is unreasonable, said Allan Kamara, the president of the Santa Clara County Registered Nurses Professional Association.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the National Nurses United urged its followers to write the state’s health department. The union and others want to end Gov. Gavin Newsom’s waivers that allow hospitals to increase nurse-to-patient ratios in intensive care units.
Each year, hundreds of health care workers in Santa Clara County hospitals are punched, kicked, spat on, slapped or worse, and it s a problem that has nurses worried someone is going to get killed.