Nurses: We’re in Crisis at UNM’s Hospital

By Sue Vorenberg SVORENBERG@ABQTRIB.COM / 823-3678

The nursing shortage at University of New Mexico Hospital has reached a crisis stage, according to nurses who started meeting today with administrators and staff to discuss the situation.

On Friday, the nurses presented a petition to the hospital’s board of directors signed by 107 ER staff — including doctors and nurses — complaining of crowded conditions, inadequate staffing and poor morale.

The hospital has 62 ER nurses on staff.

“We’re in a crisis situation, and we have been for some time,” said Terry Rustemeyer, a nurse in UNM’s emergency room for the past 10 years who signed the petition.

Rustemeyer said she and coworkers have at times had to care for as many as 12 patients by themselves. That’s too many for one nurse to provide adequate care, and nurses are the ones that are ultimately liable for patients’ well-being, Rustemeyer said.

“We’ve got our licenses out there on the line,” she said. “It’s become an intolerable and unconscionable situation. Our No. 1 job is to be the patients’ advocate, and we can’t do that.”

Noncritical patients are sometimes stuck in the ER’s hallways, waiting for care for days without access to showers. Sometimes, they go hungry because busy nurses are also responsible for food ordering and delivery, Rustemeyer said.

“We’re overwhelmed, tired, giving poor care — not purposefully – - and trying to do the best with what we have,” she said.

Paul Roth, executive vice president of Health Sciences at UNM, agrees that nurses are under a huge strain.

The hospital will try to use some of the nurses’ short-term solutions — which they included in the petition — but the bigger picture is one of inadequate funding, he said.

“We do not provide the current nursing staff as competitive wages as we would like,” Roth said. “We also do not have adequate funds to fully staff the existing hospital.”

The hospital would need about $30 million more in recurring funds from national, state and county government to fully meet demands, Roth said.

It gets about half of that, he said. The hospital’s operating budget is $359 million.

“The percentage of patients in the ER who do not have the ability to pay is now at 60 percent,” Roth said. “I’d be hard pressed to find any other hospital in the United States that has that percentage of patients who are either indigent or self-pay.”

Patients without health coverage create further financial burden on the hospital, he said.

The nurses’ suggested shortterm solutions include: having lab techs come to the ER to draw blood on admitted patients; letting the dietary unit automatically bring food to patients; and having the pharmacy deliver medications to the ER.

“I think the nurses have some very good ideas, some of which we can work on immediately,” Roth said.

Long-term solutions in the petition include finding ways to discharge patients from the ER faster; creating a discharge lounge where patients can wait for rides or medications; and giving nurses more input into how their jobs are managed.

The hospital is also expecting to hire more nurses when a new wing opens in April 2007, Roth said.

Nurses can’t legally strike, so petitions and asking for public support are often their only options besides quitting, said Eleanor Chavez, director of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Workers Local 1199.