KC area nurses protest, say they still don’t have proper protective equipment
Nurses gathered Friday outside the Research Medical Center, calling for expanded access to personal protective equipment on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.
The protest, which included nurses from Research Medical Center, Research Psychiatric Center and Menorah Medical Center, was one of many “May Day” actions taken at hospitals across the U.S. It was organized by National Nurses United, which has previously spoken out against HCA Midwest, the hospitals’ owners, for its policies during the pandemic.
The nurses originally announced that they would include 10 in the protest to abide by the Kansas City stay-at-home order limiting gatherings to 10 people. However, The Star counted more than ten protesters and nearly 20 people total, including media and HCA Midwest representatives.
In a news release Friday, the union reinforced calls for better equipment. They asked specifically for respirators, shoe coverings, coveralls, gloves and that N95 respirators only be used once. Existing policy of decontaminating N95 masks each day, the release said, is unsafe.
“We should not be reusing masks and pleading for the highest levels of protective equipment,” said Cheryl Rodarmel, a nurse at Research Hospital, in a news release from National Nurses United. “We should already have it — we need it now.”
Summer Baker, a nurse at Menorah Medical Center, said that rationing of medical equipment places both staff and patients at risk. She said that the union is asking for HCA to press President Donald Trump to enact the Defense Production Act so that more equipment is available.
“We want our protection to be based on science, not on supply,” Baker said. “We’re not immune to to complications the hospital is having.”
In a statement to The Star, HCA Midwest spokeswoman Christine Hamele said the nurses union was “trying to exploit the crisis to advance its own interests” of expanding membership.
The hospital system, the statement said, created a universal masking policy in March, instituted a pandemic pay program and is screening all patients, visitors and staff before entering facilities.
“While our hospital currently has adequate supplies of PPE, we continue to provide safeguards that are consistent with CDC guidelines and help ensure the protection of our colleagues, not only today, but into the future as the pandemic continues to evolve,” Hamele said.
She did not immediately respond to requests for details on the hospital’s masking policy or numbers on how many staff members had been infected with the virus. She said 1,500 employees have been fit tested for N95 masks.
Andy Mcclure, a clinical nurse coordinator in the emergency room at Research Medical Center, said he felt protected working at the hospital although there was confusion early on adjusting standards from normal use of protective equipment to practices meant to conserve the equipment.
“What you use on five patients in 20 years is a lot different than what you see on five patients in a day,” he said.
Though equipment is reused, he said, a staff member will switch out gowns and masks between patients if someone is believed to be a COVID-19 patient. A particular gown or mask will only be reused on the same patient. The level of protection, he said, is based on the symptoms of the patient.
He said he has had no problems accessing new equipment.
The protesting nurses brought with them 32 white roses, which they said represented the 32 nurses who had been infected with COVID-19, were likely cases or had died from the virus.
This demonstration followed previous actions from the nurses union calling on hospital officials to better protect its employees during the outbreak. The union continued to call for better protective equipment after Celia Yap-Banago, a nurse at Research Medical Center, died after testing positive for COVID-19.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
