AURORA, Colo. — Members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) and National Nurse United (NNU) rallied outside the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center Thursday afternoon.
The union said it wanted to raise awareness to the staffing shortages in the VA system.
"It puts us into a mode of crisis staffing where we’re limited on the type of skilled nursing, staff to provide quality care to our patients," local NNU Director Sharda Fornnarino said.
She said she believes the Department of Veterans Affairs isn't hiring nurses due to budget cuts. The union calls it a "hiring freeze," and claims it's impacting nurse-to-veteran care.
"Our upper management, our congresspeople, VA secretary, we’re pleading to them that the veterans deserve better," Fornnarino said.
Fornnarino said veteran care is a topic she is personally touched by, outside of her role at the hospital.
"I’m a veteran myself, and I want to give quality care to our veterans," Fornnarino said. "I'm not ready to retire, but I need to make sure that by the time I’m ready to retire, I get quality care."
ICU nurse Jordan LeBlanc said he took a job at the VA hospital two years ago because he wanted to serve American heroes.
"I think our veterans are one of the most gracious and deserving populations that there are, and typically they’ll share their experiences with me that I’ll never have the opportunity to have," LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc said the staffing shortages he's seen firsthand require him to take on more patients and stretch him thin.
"We fairly frequently use a crisis staffing methodology that basically had its origins in the COVID pandemic," LeBlanc said. "In that, an ICU nurse will take typically three patients. The gold standard is one to two patients, based on acuity level. So, it ultimately means we’re responsible for another individual, and again, that dignity of care is often the first to go."
He said knowing his patient's medical needs is just as important as knowing his patient's personal needs.
"Nurses are not just here to do tasks or to follow orders, we are here to advocate, bring everything full circle and get patients to where they want to go," LeBlanc said. "And in part, we have to be able to communicate with them and when that’s lost, it impacts my vision of who I am as a nurse and that does have a profound effect."
VA Secretary Terrance Hayes wrote a statement to 9NEWS in regard to the staffing concerns raised by the nurses' union:
"There is no nationwide hiring freeze on VA nurses, and we are continuing to hire nurses, as needed, across the country to ensure that we can deliver world-class care to Veterans. Over the past 3 years, VA has aggressively hired nurses nationwide – increasing our nursing workforce by 14,000 nurses to a total of 122,000 nurses, the largest nursing workforce in the country and in the history of VA. VA is also retaining our great nurses, with turnover rates currently at 3.4% – far outperforming the private sector."
The statement continued to say the VA is aware some locations do need more staff members, which there are tangible efforts to remedy:
"Our strategic hiring efforts thus far have still led us to grow by just over 3% since the beginning of this fiscal year, on top of our successful hiring year in FY23. There is nothing more important to VA than providing Veterans with the world-class care they deserve – wherever and whenever they need it. Veterans deserve the very best, and we will never settle for anything less."
Hayes said VA leadership is aware of concerns from the NNOC/NNU and is hoping to resolve them soon.
On June 6, union members from across the nation took their protests to Washington, D.C., to continue calling for increased hiring, especially with a claimed-66,000 jobs sitting vacant.
"I’m here for the veterans," LeBlanc said. "I’m their patient advocate. I’m not here for the politics. The bottom line is, I see the politics impacting what we’re able to do."
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