Here is a message from a St. Charles nurse about what is happening in the hospital:
"Patient care today in the Main OR at St Charles Medical Center in Bend is practically non-existent due to the significant decrease in surgeries.
The claim that the “hospital is open and providing care as usual” made by hospital administration is not accurate, and it is simply impossible given the current circumstances. There are replacement surgical and radiology technicians on site, but they are not trained to the level that our native techs are as to the equipment, policies, best practices, and staff.
Because of this, the nurses at St. Charles are highly skeptical that the high level of care and competence we had previously is obtainable by these temporary workers, whose training, skill levels, and practice are unknowns.
Additionally, these replacements have received almost no typical orientation to their units - an unheard of action and well outside of best practice. As the primary advocates for our patients, we are concerned that this is negatively impacting our ability to provide the level of care they, and our community as a whole, deserve.
The RN’s urge St. Charles to end this strike by meeting the reasonable and deserved requests being made by OFNHP."
Corey Sattler, RN
Oregon Nurses Association