ST. LOUIS — Union nurses protested outside SSM Health ºüÀêÊÓƵ University Hospital on Friday morning, calling for the administration to take action to fix chronic understaffing.
The union, National Nurses United, said there are more than 300 staff nurse vacancies at the hospital and that only 12 nurses have been hired in the past three months.
The union said in some cases, nurses are taking care of unsafe numbers of patients. On medical-surgical floors, nurses are taking care of six or seven patients at a time. Before the pandemic, the hospital limited those nurses to five patients. In intensive care units, nurses who normally would take one or two patients are getting up to three at a time.
SSM said in a statement that it is making “significant investments†in recruitment and is committed to fostering a good work environment.
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The staffing problems are not unique to ºüÀêÊÓƵ University Hospital. Vacancy in registered nurse positions statewide has doubled since 2019, hitting 20% this year, according to a survey by the Missouri Hospital Association. Hospitals across the region are short-staffed.
To fill the gaps, hospitals have relied heavily on travel nurses, who work as short-term contractors. But now, as the rates offered to travel nurses are dropping, there are even fewer available, said Taylor Smith, a nurse who works in a medical surgical unit at ºüÀêÊÓƵ University Hospital.
Some area hospitals have started using staffing options that are more short-term than travel nurses. In 2020, SSM Health started using a platform called CareRev that allows prequalified health care workers to pick up one-off shifts, and since late last year Mercy has been trialing a “gig worker†nurse position.
Staff nurses say that while the extra help is appreciated, the nurses hired through ultra short-term programs sometimes aren’t as familiar with the unit or the hospital.
“It’s another nurse you didn’t have before, but they can’t act fully independently,†Smith said.