California hospitals given leeway to use ‘last resort’ staffing waivers, analysis shows
There are more than 460,000 licensed nurses in California. Nurses have played a crucial role in caring for COVID-19 patients during the pandemic Author: Jill Castellano | inewsource and Tarryn Mento | KPBS Published: 3:58 PM PST March 4, 2021 Updated: 5:08 PM PST March 9, 2021
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. Nurse George Santiago performed CPR on a patient at Palomar Medical Center Escondido. The man, hooked to a ventilator, didn’t survive.
“I’m picturing myself as if this is my family member and there is nothing I can do,” Santiago said. “The desperation, the hopelessness. That’s what kind of kills you.”
California Nurses Urges Congress to Pass Biden’s American Rescue Plan
By Bertram Keller Contributing Writer
Published February 4, 2021
Members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) and National Nurses United (NNU) organized an online briefing for the California Congressional Delegation, with hopes that congress steps up to meets the needs of healthcare workers during the highest recorded surge of Covid-19 cases.
As numbers continue to spike, hospital conditions have become unacceptable for frontline medical workers. The inadequate funding behind public health has led to a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), understaffed personnel, and neglect for the protocol of infectious disease control.
California COVID-19 surge leaves hospital nurses frustrated over staffing shortages The state s nurses union urges Congress to pass President Biden s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
, Associate Editor
Roughly a year into the pandemic, healthcare workers across the country are taking care of record numbers of COVID-19 patients, and many are doing so without access to optimal personal protective equipment, testing, safe staffing levels and other infection control policies.
In California, which has surpassed three million cases, nurses are facing an especially daunting task of caring for the more than 20,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients amid dwindling intensive care unit capacities, according to state COVID-19 data.