Four nurses fired for refusal to treat patient
June 1, 1999
Four nurses fired for refusal to treat patient
Issue related to $5-an-hour pay dispute
In a sign of the worsening effects of the nurse shortage in critical care, four registered nurses in California were fired by their hospital in April for refusing to treat a critically ill patient. Their refusal, according to hospital officials, stemmed from a $5-an-hour wage dispute.
Officials of 242-bed Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, CA, dismissed the nurses following an investigation on April 19 into violations of hospital nursing policy. The four RNs were assigned to the emergency department (ED). They allegedly refused to care for the critically ill patient who was awaiting transfer from the ED to the intensive care unit. The incident occurred shortly after the RNs reported for work on Saturday morning, April 17.
According to Carol Dimse, RN, Community Memorial’s assistant executive director, the nurses refused to take responsibility for the case allegedly because they had not been given a $5-an-hour increase that had been previously granted to nurses in the ICU.
The RNs performed their regular duties in the ED, but refused to care for the critically ill patient despite being told to do so by the nurse manager on duty, Dimse says.
The nurses were not sent home. However, the department had to be assisted by RNs from other critical care floors until the patient was transferred to the ICU, Dimse told Critical Care Management. The following Wednesday, the hospital fired the four nurses. The nurses could not be reached for comment.
Dimse indicated that during the investigation, the nurses acknowledged their refusal to provide care was based on a dispute over pay. Earlier in the month, the hospital agreed to demands from its ICU nurses for a $5-an-hour wage increase that would match a similar raise given to ICU nurses at a neighboring hospital, St. John’s Regional Medical Center, in Oxnard.
Nurses at Community Memorial’s ED then requested a similar increase. According to Dimse, the hospital was about to grant the ED nurses the same raise (each time they cared for a critically ill patient) until that happened.
"The incident surprised everyone," Dimse says. "Using a patient as a pawn over money was completely inappropriate. The entire nursing staff is repulsed by this."
As CRM went to press, hospital officials planned to give nurses in the ED the proposed pay raise but added that the four RNs would not be rehired.
According to John Masterson, a Community Memorial spokesman, the incident reflects the tensions stemming from a severe critical care nurse shortage in the local hospital community. Earlier this year, St. John’s Regional was forced to close certain critical care beds and had to offer the wage increase to attract nurses to its ICU.
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