TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Nurses at Saint Joseph's and Saint Mary's hospitals in Tucson are staging a protest outside Saint Joseph's Medical Hospital, demanding an end to what they call unsafe staffing conditions for workers and patients.
The National Nurses Organizing Committee has been in negotiations with hospital ownership — Carondelet Health Network, a branch of Tenet Healthcare — for months. Nurses say staffing shortages have reached a crisis point.
Jaclyn Steinke, a telemetry nurse at Saint Mary's, said her department is supposed to maintain a ratio of one nurse for every 4 patients. Staffing shortages have pushed that number to six patients per nurse.
"Our patients' safety is put on the line when nurses are asked to take too many patients and they can handle." Steinke said.
"We are constantly pushed to a staffing crisis that's unnecessary and really showing that Tenet is valuing profits over patient care and patient safety," Steinke said.
Saint Joseph's nurse Todd Herres said the shortage is just as severe at his hospital.
"There's just not enough nurses to go around for the amount of patients that we have," Herres said.
The staffing crisis extends beyond Southern Arizona. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, while there are over 5 million registered nurses in the U.S., over 267,000 nurses are needed in hospitals nationwide by 2028. Arizona's nursing shortage is among the worst in the country, with 28,000 nurses needed by 2030 according to the National Center for Health
It's a trend Herres says, along with a lack of hiring, has fueled the crisis at both hospitals.
Harris described the consequences playing out on the floor.
"Without the proper staffing, we're seeing more falls. We're seeing delay of medications, of life-saving medications. We have patients that should be in the ICU." Harris said.
Carondelet Health Network provided the following statement to KGUN 9:
"The hospitals are fully operational, and our staff's focus, as always, is on providing exceptional quality patient care. We are disappointed that the union is taking this approach, as it is not constructive or necessary. We have made good progress toward new contracts with the union and will continue to negotiate in good faith in hopes of reaching a successful resolution, without the need to disrupt our patients or staff in their mission," said.
Nurses said they hope the protest pressures Carondelet to address the staffing shortage.
"We don't want to do any of this. We want the hospital to do the right thing. They have created the crisis that we're seeing with staffing, and they're the ones that need to fix it." Harris said.
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