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Nurses Protest Unsafe Working Conditions Across US

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Minnesota Nurses want employers to #protectnurses, other healthcare workers, and patients by following proper infection control practices

Thousands of nurses across the United States put down their stethoscopes and picked up protest signs on Wednesday, August 5th to address the lack of protective gear (PPE) and unsafe staffing levels in their hospitals.   A shortage of PPE (Personal protective equipment) for both patients and hospital staff has been an ongoing problem since COVID-19 forced healthcare institutions to radically change practices.

Due to safety concerns around the pandemic, hospitals can no longer do the elected surgeries and non-essential services that typically provide them with large profits. Ironically, due to the pandemic hospitals have cut staff, and across the country there have been hiring freezes in medical institutions.  In most towns and cities, where their are no drastic COVID outbreaks, hospitals are operating far under capacity and losing money and shedding staff daily.

Nurses who remain employed are now speaking out concerning dangerously low staff levels, as well as unsafe equipment on the front lines.  Their message to the their employers is simple:  ‘save lives’, ‘protect people over profits’, and provide them with the protective equipment they need to keep everyone safe.

Many nurses in the Bay Area are calling out hospitals for asking them to ‘reuse contaminated N95 masks’, as well different equipment around respirators that are also in very high demand.

Thankfully the California Nurses Union as well as the National Nurses Organization are strong, and our nurses do have a voice and strong bargaining power.  Their demands are very reasonable:

The California Nurses Association wants public health infrastructure to be strengthened and listed the following via twitter:
⭐ sufficient staffing
⭐ supplies
⭐ space for robust surveillance
⭐ testing
⭐ case isolation
⭐ contact tracing
⭐ and more
to ensure #COVID19 is effectively contained and lives are saved.

San Francisco Kaiser

North Carolina

Las vegas

Sacramento

Florida

Nurses are the first people we see when we are born, and typically the last people we see when we die.  They also happen to be the people who keep us alive in between.  Give them what they need, to do their jobs.

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Alex Mak - Managing Editor

Alex Mak - Managing Editor

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