Striking AHS Nurses: We refuse to be complicit in the dysfunction and chaos that endangers our patients.
By Lisa LaFave, RN
During the most devastating pandemic of our lifetimes, Alameda Health Systems (AHS) is willfully attacking its own frontline nurses and jeopardizing patient health and safety. For nearly two years, nurses have called on the Alameda Board of Supervisors (BOS) to intervene on behalf of the residents of our county, the very people who elected them to office.
However, the BOS has shirked its responsibility, refusing to take measurable action. This complicity has led this public health system into complete dysfunction and chaos. Ultimately, patients and frontline nurses are suffering because our publicly elected officials have failed to prioritize the health of our community.
As a nurse at San Leandro Hospital, it makes me angry to see AHS mismanage my hospital and make it impossible for nurses to provide the highest standard of care to our patients — those who are hardest hit by Covid-19 and largely marginalized people of color.
For us who sit at the bargaining table, it appears AHS, with the consent of the BOS, is intent on eroding the very contract that nurses have fought for, for nearly 40+ years.
It is only with the protections of a strong contract that nurses can speak out to defend their patients and their profession.
We nurses never make the decision to strike lightly. We have tried talking reason with management for nearly two years. Sometimes acting in our patients’ best interests means drawing a line in the sand. We will not be complicit in AHS’s dysfunction which endangers us all.
AHS has repeatedly violated state-mandated minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and failed to staff safely for the pandemic. In a time when infection control is of paramount importance, they have failed to provide optimal personal protective equipment to nurses caring for Covid patients, instead forcing nurses to reuse PPE which is not safe for patients nor nurses. They have never created dedicated Covid units, but instead routinely assigned one nurse to care for both Covid and non-Covid patients, thus increasing the likelihood of cross contamination.
As the need for emergency services grew as Covid spread, AHS announced its intention to cut ER staffing to both my facility and Alameda Hospital. Our patients are much sicker and require more care (which requires more staff), not less!
For example, we nurses told management we needed additional RN training and staffing when it rolled out a program at San Leandro Hospital to increase the number of psychiatric patients in the ER for medical clearance before being admitted. They didn’t listen to our warnings, leading to patients suffering mental health crises being left alone without properly trained support staff. Tragically, one of these patients escaped from San Leandro Hospital due to insufficient staffing and later killed an innocent civilian. This could all have been prevented had there been proper care and resources available for this patient.
Not only does management refuse to act on our concerns, it actively retaliates against us for speaking out. Some nurses have been issued unjust disciplinary actions for protesting unsafe working conditions. It is unconscionable that nurses who are advocating on behalf of the community and the most vulnerable among us are being punished for seeking to create a safer health care system for us all.
AHS is a public resource and must be held accountable by the public and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. We are essential workers calling on the supervisors to reassume direct management of AHS, settle our contracts and make public health their primary priority because our community and patients deserve better and my fellow nurses who are putting their lives on the line every day deserve better.
All our lives depend on it.
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