A union of nurses held a rally in Springfield on Monday to protest understaffing at medical facilities owned by PeaceHealth.
Protestors gathered near The Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, amidst contract negotiations between PeaceHealth and nurses.
The Oregon Nurses Association says there are 1,500 frontline PeaceHealth nurses across Eugene and Springfield, but nearly 300 vacant positions. The organization said staff members often take on additional patients to compensate.
Jo Turner works in hospice care. She said there are more risks when nurses are stretched thin.
“You're skipping steps because you have to run back down to another room. You don't have the bandwidth to take care of that many people and that many people that are sick.”
Turner said PeaceHealth needs to attract nurses back with better hours and stronger protections against angry patients. A representative of PeaceHealth said it remained “deeply committed” to its caregivers.
