California Nurses Association/National Nurses United Virtual press conference Wednesday, Dec. 30 Registered nurses at Sutter California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) will hold a press conference at noon on Wednesday Dec. 30 to protest the hospital’s use of a state waiver to circumvent RN-to-patient safe staffing standards, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today. Under ratios waivers, hospitals can increase the workload of already overburdened nurses. Nurses say they are urging CPMC to staff for safe patient care, not to use the pandemic as an excuse to put patients at serious risk. “As a frontline ER nurse of three decades, who worked before California’s safe staffing ratios were enacted in 2004 and who worked after, I know ratios enable me to be the best I can be at my job,” said Jane Sandoval, CPMC registered nurse and CNA board member. “Now Sutter is asking to waive safe staffing and go backward in time—backward in patient safety—during a deadly pandemic, with Covid-19 and flu season converging. This puts patients, nurses, and our entire community at risk.”