Nurses Release Report Documenting Understaffing
Monday, May 12, 2014
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Registered
nurses and community allies on Monday --
International Nurses Day -- released a
new 24-page patient care report documenting
scores of incidents of
understaffing at District hospitals and
government agencies over the past 15
months. The report was prepared for the DC City
Council, which is currently considering
the Patient Protection Act, a bill the nurses
say would sharply improve safety
in District hospitals through requiring minimum
numbers of nurses/ratios per
patient. Presentation of the report,
which
was filed with the Health Regulation and
Licensing Administration for the DC
Department of Health and to the Mayor and
Council members, followed a rally by DC RNs
outside the John A.
Wilson Building where the nurses called on the
Council to pass the Act. “Every
nurse here can tell you that short staffing too
often puts our patients at
risk,” said Sandra Falwell, RN, a 43-year
nurse at Children’s National Medical
Center and Vice President of National Nurses
United. “With ER patients at
Providence Hospital sometimes waiting for more
than 12 hours to be seen, or
three or four hours to even be triaged, it is
not uncommon for their conditions
to get worse,” said Providence Hospital
orthopedic nurse Rose Farhoudi, RN.
- photo by Jay Mallin