Tacoma nurse says it’s hard to provide level of care ‘patients deserve’ with low staffing

After continued staffing challenges in hospitals across the state, nurses are now calling on the Legislature to step in and help.

Legislature debates WA hospital staffing ratios as health care labor problem steeps

The proposed bill would set legal nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals. It passed the House with overwhelming Democratic support, but most Republicans voted against the idea.

Linda Burbank is a nurse in the acute cardiac care unit at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Tacoma. She told the Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin Show this week that conditions are “distressing.”

“I’m a registered nurse and I’ve worked at the bedside for over 20 years and throughout this entire pandemic,” Burbank explained. “What I can tell you is the conditions have changed to the point of just being very distressing for nursing staff, and medical staff in general.”

“We have seen an increase in workload that isn’t manageable,” she continued. “We’ve had a lot of issues with getting significant support, with getting meal breaks and rest breaks that we need. There’s a significant amount of concern from nursing staff, as you know, and the reason why we have the bill on the table to try to create an environment and working conditions that are safe for the patient and manageable for the nurses.”

These problems, Burbank says, are not new, and the pandemic is not entirely to blame.

“They’re just amplified with COVID,” she said.

She described a common scenario in the hospital.

“Imagine you’re coming into work and the work that you do is to take care of patients, and you get to work, and instead of having four patients, you have eight patients. The patients you have are sicker and you have less support than you need or than you should have,” she said.

“We, on a daily basis, are struggling with providing the care that we want to provide and that patients deserve,” she added.

The current conditions, Burbank says, are leading to burnout and causing distress for the nurses who are coming to work but feel like they can’t do their jobs safely.

To help, Burbank asks that people support House Bill 1868.

“The hospital beds are filled on a daily basis. People are going in and out and needing care. It could be any of you at any time,” she said. “This isn’t just the nurses. This is coming from patients, this is coming from nurses, this is coming from all different community members who have had experience with it.”

“We just ask that people get informed and support the House bill,” she added.

Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.