UC Davis nurses demand improved staffing, but management says it’s part of union’s playbook

Registered nurses at UC Davis Health demanded Wednesday that the Sacramento-based system address staffing shortages in a video conference call that hospital leaders described as “part of their usual bargaining playbook.”

The nurses union, the California Nurses Association, will begin contract negotiations with University of California leaders starting in 2022.

Registered nurse Jenny Managhebi said there are enough nurses in the region’s labor pool to staff the university hospital, but many of those professionals don’t want to work in current conditions.

“There is not a shortage of nurses. There is a shortage of nurses willing to work in unsafe working conditions,” she said. “Nurses are doing everything they can for their patients, and it just does not seem to be enough. The morale among nurses is low. Nurses are experiencing moral distress and moral injury when they come to work each day.”

UC Davis responded in a news release that the health system’s leaders are committed to maintaining safe staffing levels and that the facts don’t support the nurses’ contentions. Officials pointed out that the annual medical center’s turnover rate for nurses has been about 4% for several years, equating to about one in 25 nurses.

“We’ve hired more than 1,300 additional nurses over the past three years – that’s an increase of almost 20% since 2018,” the UCD statement noted. “More than 1,200 nurses at UC Davis Health have worked here for more than a decade. That is about the same number of very experienced nurses as last year around this time.”

Trevor Chickosky, a registered nurse who works in the UCD Medical Center’s emergency department, said the medical center’s chief nursing officer met with a group of nurses last week and told them he plans to maintain the current staffing plan.

“Since then, I’ve received no less than 22 requests to come in extra, in addition to our pre-scheduled departmental overtime in the emergency department,” Chickosky said. “I’ve had the opportunity to work beyond 12-hour shift every single shift I’ve worked since this meeting, the staffing plan has failed.

“Our nurses are exhausted, and UC Davis needs to do more to retain and encourage our current staff.”

The nurses said they have also demonstrated their ability to be flexible amid an explosion in demand for care. For instance, RN Katherine Schulke said, the hospital’s pediatric nurses agreed to care for adult patients who were critically ill with COVID-19 when the adult units were overflowing, and they also cared for babies who required intensive care when the NICU was overflowing.

“After months of consistent short-staffing, we find ourselves in an unsustainable situation,” Schulke said. “Due to lack of staffing, management is relying on nurses working 16-hour shifts, putting nurses and patients in an unsafe working environment. UC Davis nurses can no longer bear and receive daily messages from management that our unit is once again short-staffed.”

UC Davis leaders said the union would spend the next several months trying to create false issues it hopes will translate into results at the bargaining table, but they are remaining focused on delivering patient care that has won national recognition.

They noted that the medical center’s adult and infant intensive care units recently received the Gold Beacon Award from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, which recognizes care teams who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN’s six Healthy Work Environment Standards.

The hospital’s medical-surgical care team also just earned the PRISM Award, co-sponsored by the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses and the Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Board, they noted. The honor recognizes exemplary practice by the recipients, and the acronym stands for Premier Recognition In the Specialty of Med-Surg.

And in July, hospital leaders said, the UC Davis Medical Center’s Emergency Department was one of only 33 EDs nationwide to receive the Lantern Award from the Emergency Nurses Association. It recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate excellent practice and innovative performance through leadership, education, advocacy and research.

Sara Colegrove, a registered nurse who floats among departments as needs arise, said she has seen the spirit that has allowed nurses to continue to function at peak levels despite the stress they are bearing.

“The manner in which our nurses have pulled together to provide the highest standard of patient care has been inspiring,” she said. “Some of our departments were transformed into COVID units overnight. They have done amazing things. Our nurses, environmental services and patient care staff have taken this challenge and excelled.”

However, Colegrove said, nurses are concerned that “the new normal” will require them to continue to try to do more with less — managing lab work because there are no nursing assistants, using breaks to do charting, and trying to get by with less support from charge nurses juggling more administrative duties.

“Nurses are fighting for safe staffing, not to make their jobs easier, but to take better care of their patients and improve patient safety and outcomes,” Colegrove said. “It is our responsibility as nurses to shine a light on poor staffing and patient safety issues. This is an oath we take. We’re here to take care of our patients, not profits and not the bottom line.”