Nurses at USC’s Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Hospital are picketing the hospital as part of a two-day strike starting Tuesday.
They say they're short-staffed and claim the university isn't doing enough to hire more nurses.
“It’s not uncommon to be short 15 to 20 nurses every shift. It's not uncommon to miss breaks to miss lunches,” Intensive Care Unit nurse Michael Simonton told KNX.
He thinks the university is putting profits ahead of its staff and patients.
Simonton said the lack of nurses means those on staff are working more than they are supposed to.
“A typical nurse shift is 12 hours. It’s not uncommon to work 18 hours because we don't have anyone to relieve us,” said Simonton.
The strike follows an authorization vote in June. Nearly all the nurses at the hospitals voted to authorize a strike, according to the California Nurses Association.
“We don’t want to strike, but our patients’ safety is jeopardized by chronic short staffing and the hospital’s excessive reliance on outside contractors without the appropriate skill mix to provide safe care,” said Joshua Duarte, a nurse at the 5 West Intensive Care Unit at Keck Hospital.
“USC needs to do better.”
USC said its hospitals were consistently above staffing thresholds determined by the California Department of Public Health during the pandemic.
USC has hired additional nurses, but only to replace the nurses who are on strike.
The USC nurses have been in contract negotiations since November 2020, but the union said there has been little movement on key issues.
Nurses are asking for guarantees that nurses with the “appropriate skill mix” will receive priority over contractors, rest periods between shifts and rotation for nurses in infectious disease units.
Additionally, nurses want administrators to listen to their input.
“USC administrators should be listening to the bedside nurses’ and nurse practitioners’ concerns about patient safety and workflow, not consultants,” said Allison Crane, a nurse practitioner.
”Nursing administration is trying to cut corners, and unfortunately they affect us all as staff at Keck.”
The strike began on Tuesday at 8 a.m. and will run until Wednesday at 9 p.m.
California Nurses Association/National Nurses United represents nearly 1,400 nurses at Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital.