By james art 
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The registered nurses at St. Bernardine in San Bernardino have announced a formal protest against management’s alleged refusal to address chronic staffing shortages that are impacting patient safety.
The nurses at Dignity Health St. Bernardine will hold a two-hour informational picket starting at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Association announced.
The St. Bernardine nurses notified their employer of the information picket on Oct. 16, the group said.
Nurses will gather on the sidewalk near the emergency room entrance at Dignity Health, St. Bernardine Hospital, 2101 N. Waterman Ave. in San Bernardino.
The nursing group argued that a lack of investment in staff by CommonSpirit Health, the owners and operators of St. Bernardine, leading to high turnover rates at a hospital already suffering from understaffing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Due to CommonSpirit’s failure to retain hospital staff, nurses have been forced to take on multiple roles outside of our assigned duties—we act as technicians, certified nursing assistants, and transport and security staff,” says ICU RN Donielle Kelosky. “This is the definition of hazardous working conditions. These conditions not only compromise the physical and mental well-being of nurses, but they compromise the safety of the patients entrusted to our care.
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According to the 2024 ranking, CommonSpirit Health is the nation’s largest Catholic hospital chain and the second-largest not-for-profit hospital chain in the United States, with net patient revenues of just under $30 billion.
Because of its nonprofit status, the hospital system does not pay tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes — resources that should be plowed back into its workforce and the communities in which it works, the nursing group said.
“CommonSpirit has the resources to end the staffing crisis, overwork and increased levels of stress and morale distress nurses are facing and which management has failed to adequately address,” said Simon Seiyum, Dept. for telemetry RN. “We called the picket line because we’re tired — tired of working nonstop, overtime, and under-resourced — while we see CommonSpirit raking in billions in revenue.”
There is no shortage of nurses, but there is a serious hospital staffing crisis, according to an NNU analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
In California, there are 166,233 registered nurses with active licenses who do not work at the bedside.
The California Nurses Association represents nearly 800 registered nurses at St. Bernardine.