Media Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Patients Losing Nurse Staffing to Cuts
(St. Paul) – May 10, 2021 – Nurse members of the Minnesota Nurses Association have filed a formal notice of their intent to hold an Informational Picket outside M Health Fairview’s Southdale Hospital campus on Wednesday, May 12.
MNA nurses are opposing M Health’s plan to cut staffing for patients in vitally important care departments. While nurses have tried to engage in discussions with hospital management on solutions, Southdale staffing plans show managers intend to cut anyway, including reducing Medical/Surgical department staffing. The effect will immediately increase the patient load from between 4 and 5 to 6 patient assignments for nurses working on most inpatient departments.
Southdale nurses delivered a petition stating that the cuts would threaten patient safety and outcomes, and more than 900 nurses signed on.
Kristy Ricks, a Registered Nurse at Southdale said, “We are constantly being asked to give more and more with less. Eventually, we will have no more to give. The staffing levels management intends to force on nurses is simply impossible and may lead to potentially unsafe situations. Nurses have told management this repeatedly. We need them to hear us.”
The event is an Informational Picket only, not a work stoppage. No employees will be leaving their jobs that day. Patient care will continue during the picket times.
When: Wednesday, May 12, 2:30 – 6:30 p.m. Speaking program at 5 p.m.
Where: 6401 France Avenue South, Edina, MN
Who: Nurses of M Health Fairview Southdale
What: Informational Picket
Why: To demand safe patient care over M Health’s cuts to nurse-patient staffing
Southdale needs to stop rationing care. Patient acuity has increased. Southdale should be increasing staff; not decreasing staff.