Nurses at the Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas, rallied Sept. 27 out of mounting concerns over the safety of newborn and open-heart surgery patients.
The hospital's labor and delivery unit is reportedly so understaffed that "a single nurse is bouncing from one delivery to the next with no time to make sure protocols and assessments are done correctly," Katherine Alvarado, RN, stated in a Sept. 25 union news release.
Its cardiovascular intensive care unit has been facing similar challenges, according to the release.
Nurses at the hospital noted that "short-staffing means some patients come out of open-heart surgery into a unit without enough nurses to safely staff it," the release states. "Management has attempted to float nurses from the medical intensive care unit, but nurses say that’s not a solution."
Becker's reached out to Ascension for comment on the matter and will provide any updates as they become available.