Mercy Merced nurses protest lack of equipment, say they need protection from coronavirus
A group of registered nurses who work at Mercy Medical Center Merced gathered Wednesday to demand adequate protections to treat patients infected with coronavirus.
The Merced protest was organized by the California Nurses Association (CNA), which has spearheaded similar actions in other cities since the coronavirus pandemic began.
CNA labor representative Ernie Gonzalez said the union wants Mercy’s operator Dignity Health to provide the hospital’s nurses with proper personal protective equipment — commonly referred to as PPE.
The union also wants nurses to be able to treat every patient as if they have the coronavirus. That’s because even those who are infected can be without symptoms.
“It’s those people that slip through the cracks that’s going to cause us to become sick. And if we’re sick, who’s going to take care of the community?” said Noelle English, a registered nurse who participated in Wednesday’s protest. English says she works on Mercy’s COVID-19 floor.
Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Merced responded to the Merced Sun-Star’s request for comment Thursday, with a statement regarding personal protective equipment for healthcare workers at the hospital.
“There is no higher priority than the safety of our people and our patients,” Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Merced said in the statement.
Mercy Medical Center Merced said it has been working to ensure all of its team members in need of personal protective equipment (PPE), not only have the correct equipment, but that they have it at the right time and are using it correctly.
The statement went on to say that Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center is continuing to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about appropriate use of PPE gear as well as looking ahead to anticipate what will be needed to provide efficient care to all patients, including COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks.
“Our approach to supplies and equipment is a big part of this future planning. We are working with suppliers around the world to obtain additional safety supplies and await the arrival of these supplies soon. Additionally, we are working hard to ensure our employees are not only aware of and trained on our PPE protocols, but also that our facility leadership are responding to our staff quickly should they have questions, concerns or thoughts,” the statement said.
As of Wednesday, in Merced County there are 78 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Public Health.
Equipment concerns
The union said nurses and healthcare workers are having to reuse protective equipment and N95 masks, which can make the equipment less effective.
Plus, the union’s concerned about cross-infecting patients. Gonzalez said that can occur when a nurse wears the same equipment to treat a patient who tested positive, while also treating someone awaiting test results.
Wednesday’s Merced protest happened a day after a similar CNA action in Fresno.
There, the union says up to 70 registered nurses at a Kaiser Permanente facility may have been exposed. At least nine nurses have been infected with COVID-19, the union said, leading to at least three nurses having to be admitted and one nurse ending up in critical care.
Kaiser Permanente officials said 10 nurses have tested positive, and seven were work-related cases.
Earlier this month, 10 nurses at Sutter Health Rural Health clinic in Los Banos tested positive for coronavirus.
English said nurses at Mercy are offered one N95 mask, which they’re expected to make last for a 12-hour shift.
The nurses don’t understand why they’re only getting one piece of equipment that should be thrown away after each use, she explained.
“Something that kind of brings it home to all of us is the sickness that the nurses in Fresno Kaiser have experienced with their 10 confirmed cases of nurses who were exposed and it could have been prevented,” English said.
Hector Torres, an emergency room registered nurse at Mercy, said in order to keep the community safe as well as themselves, nurses require the maximum level of protective equipment.
“Due to the circumstances of our daily work that’s very unpredictable, sometimes its not available fast enough to be able to reach our patients in time,” Torres said.
Amy Arlund, a California Nurses Association board member and intensive care nurse in Fresno, said she and other leaders joined Wednesday’s protest to show support.
“We’ve had a lot of our nurses in Fresno become sick from not getting the proper PPE as we call it,” said Arlund. “So some of our leaders came here to show support to these nurses here, that we want them to continue to fight very hard to get the proper protective equipment so that their nurses don’t fall ill like ours did.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 8:37 PM.