This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA.
Not providing enough staff to a hospital may seem like a cost-cutting measure, but it’s a matter of life or death for the people we take care of. On shifts where we don’t have enough staff, workers struggle to provide even the most basic patient care. There aren’t enough people to help a patient up to a chair, or to reposition in bed. Call lights go unanswered, risking patient falls and losing patients’ trust. Procedures like CT scans get delayed because there is no one to help transport the patient. Sharps containers stay dangerously overfilled as no one is available to empty them. Newer nurses have no one to ask to help guide their decision-making process when working with complex patients. These are not just inconveniences but risk actual harm to patients.
Working under these conditions causes harm to the workers too, as they are unable to provide the care that they know their patients need. Burnout only increases as there aren’t any staff to provide breaks, and we struggle to do our best for our patients with barely a chance to use the bathroom during our shifts.
Management needs to stop insulting us by buying us a pizza on days we’re critically short staffed, or begging us to come in for extra shifts when we’re already exhausted. We need them to actually staff the hospital appropriately, so we can provide the safe care our patients deserve.
Click here to read the article printed in the 09-16-25 Healthcare Newsletter
