WE OBJECT!! Nurses Shouldn't Be Forced to Work in Central Monitoring Room

Nurses working as Telemetry Technicians is unsafe for patients, and nurses feel their jobs and licenses are at risk! Nurses are being forced to work in the Central Monitoring Room (CMR) to fulfil the role as Telemetry Technicians with little to no orientation, and are not being provided a resource to the unlike area. Although nurses are trained to read telemetry rhythms, they do not do it daily like the telemetry technicians, and are only assigned to take care of telemetry patients a few times a month in their home units.

Additionally, inpatient nursing units have been chronically short of staff, and the requirement to float to the CMR is further taking nurses away from high volume areas that need to provide essential patient care. Nurses are missing breaks, and staff morale is at an all-time low. Continuing to put additional work, stress, and burden on the nurses will only hurt our recruitment and retention efforts which we so desperately are trying to improve. We urge Jeff Smith and the County Board of Supervisors to please stop allowing Administration to use and abuse the nurses in any role they see fit, and start putting patient care and staff satisfaction first!