Southern California school districts plan reopenings despite dire spread of COVID-19
This week California has crossed yet another devastating threshold, reporting more than 3.12 million cases of COVID-19 and 35,701 deaths. The state has now reported more cases than Italy and Japan combined, with a multitude of cases that still remain unreported.
According to Bonnie Castillo, the executive director of the California Nurses Association, death rates have increased by more than 82 percent in California over the last two weeks. In the past seven days, the state averaged more than 41,000 new cases each day, a significant increase since the period before the winter holidays.
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.
As COVID-19 Surges, California Overrides Limits on Nurse Workloads
Nurse Cherry Costales prepares a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at St. John s Well Child and Family Center on January 7, 2021, in Los Angeles, California.
Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Californiaâs telemetry nurses, who specialize in the electronic monitoring of critically ill patients, normally take care of four patients at once. But ever since the state relaxed Californiaâs mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in mid-December, Nerissa Black has had to keep track of six.
And these six patients are really sick: Many of them are being treated simultaneously for a stroke and covid-19, or a heart attack and covid. With more patients than usual needing more complex care, Black said sheâs worried sheâll miss something or make a mistake.
California’s telemetry nurses, who specialize in the electronic monitoring of critically ill patients, normally take care of four patients at once. But ever since the state relaxed California’s mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in mid-December, Nerissa Black has had to keep track of six.
In a landslide vote this week, registered nurses at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City are bringing union representation to the stateâs northwest coast after voting by 85 percent to join the California Nurses Association.Â
âWe are thrilled to be joining our 8,000 Sutter RN colleagues to bring a unified voice for advocating for safe patient care for our patients here in Crescent City, as well as throughout the Sutter system, which is even more critical in the midst of this deadly pandemic,â said Sutter Coast RN Niki Pope.Â
In a mail ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, the RNs voted 70 to 12 for the union, an 85 percent victory margin. CNA, an affiliate of National Nurses United, will represent about 100 RNs at the facility.Â