ST PETERSBURG, Fla. — Nurses at some Bay Area hospitals are picketing Thursday morning over what they say are serious staffing concerns at HCA hospitals.
Nurses say the hospital needs to fix staffing and scheduling issues to give the best patient care possible.
"Sometimes a patient may need to be transferred to a higher level of acute care," said Roselily Story, a local RN. "We need to be able to provide timely care to that patient. More nurses and structured care would be provided if we were to have that for our nurses."
Nurses are picketing at five HCA hospitals in the Bay Area, including St. Petersburg General Hospital, Northside Hospital, Oak Hill Hospital, Blake Medical Center in Bradenton and Doctor's Hospital of Sarasota.
According to the union, at Northside Hospital, 48 percent of nurses have worked there less than 18 months.
Data at Blake Medical Center in the month of January 2018, numerous units were out of compliance with the hospital's staffing grid, according to the union.
Nurses also remain concerned about the high turnover rate of nurses.
ABC Action News reached out to the hospital's parent company, HCA, several times, but has not yet heard back.
Nurses at HCA hospitals are currently in the middle of contract negotiations.
