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Uploaded: Friday, February 15, 2013, 9:30 AM
On-call nurses allege they must sleep in cars
After Packard nurse is victim of smash-and-grab auto burglary, questions raised about hospital's responsibility
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by Sue Dremann
Palo Alto Weekly Staff
The Jan. 23 burglary of a Lucile Packard Children's Hospital nurse's car while she slept in it has become a lightning rod for nurses who allege hospital managers are not providing the safe sleeping quarters required by their union contract.
The on-call nurses, who work late at night, said they are sleeping in their cars between assignments. Though some said they have asked for a bed in the hospital, they haven't been given one or they were reprimanded when seeking a spot on their own.
The hospital insists it is in compliance with the contract, and a room is given to any nurse who requests one. But there is a huge discrepancy between the hospital's and the nurses' claims, in what appears to be a breakdown in communication.
Since at least 1998, Packard Hospital's contract has required that on-call nurses who request a sleeping room be provided one.
The contract states that a patient-care manager or supervisor must "identify a location to sleep for those nurses on restricted or unrestricted on-call who have worked a minimum of 16 consecutive hours or who have less than eight hours before their next scheduled shift begins."
Four sleeping locations were designated in a 1998 agreement but are subject to change: patient rooms, the post-anesthesia care unit isolation room, the perinatal diagnostic center and at the Packard Children's Day Hospital.
But a number of nurses said they were never told about the contract provision. One nurse who has worked in the obstetrics unit for two decades said getting a sleeping space has rarely been supported.
"When people ask, the managers say, 'We'll see what we can do.' We're the last resort. Nurses are supposed to make do because that's what nurses always do," she said.
A hospital spokesperson emphasized that nurses need to request a space. The location may change, but a patient room at the day hospital is most frequently used. The hospital does not track the usage of accommodations, spokesperson Kelly Frank said in an email.
"We've been able to comply with all nurse requests for sleep space," she said.
Transport nurses in the obstetrics and gynecology unit disagreed and said they are left to sleep in their cars, which creates unsafe situations.
Lorie Johnson, president of the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA) union, said that the hospital should provide a permanent, designated sleeping space.
"On-call happens every night, every day of the year. CRONA and the nurses have long asked that a location for sleeping be pre-designated. Here, if the location would have been identified to begin with, there would have been no need for the nurse to make a specific request," she said in an email.
New hospital construction has exacerbated the problem, nurses said. Nurses must now either park farther away and walk or wait in the dark for a shuttle, they said. A rash of auto burglaries has them worried.
The victim of the Jan. 23 burglary is an on-call nurse who is assigned to ride with patients on helicopters. She sleeps between transport assignments. The nurses are required to be near or in the hospital during their shifts and to be reachable by phone.
The nurse said she lives about an hour away, so she sleeps in her SUV on days when she comes off transport work at 3 a.m. and is scheduled to work on the hospital floor at 7 a.m. Other nurses who live out of the area said they do the same.
On the night of the burglary, the nurse was parked in a lot across from the hospital at 770 Welch Road, where Packard has a clinic. She parked in a spot that was illuminated and was closest to the hospital, she said.
She awoke to the sound of breaking glass at about 3:40 a.m. A man with a gun in his hand grabbed her purse from the front-seat center console, snatched a bookbag and rifled through the glove compartment before jumping into a getaway car driven by another person, she said. A Palo Alto police report did not mention a gun, Lt. Zach Perron, said.
In a statement to the Weekly last week, hospital spokesperson Robert Dicks said:
"The nurse involved did not request of a patient care manager or supervisor an in-hospital sleep space. Space would have been available had it been requested. ... The nurse involved in this incident chose to rest in an area that is not controlled by the medical center," Dicks said in an email.
Johnson said nurses who work the night shift have parked in the clinic lots for years.
"The hospital has never said anything or done anything to inform nurses that these areas are not controlled by the hospital or notified nurses that they should not assume that they could safely park in those areas," she said.
The nurse whose car was burglarized said she wasn't told she could request a bed or that the area had experienced an increase in crime. Had she known, she would not have slept in her car.
Other nurses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, supported her claims.
"If there is a room, it is the best kept secret in town," one nurse said.
"I have not heard one transport nurse in my unit say that they knew of or made use of this contract provision. ... While there may be contract language regarding on-call sleep room or space, the stark reality is these provisions are on paper only," she said.
In an email last week Johnson stated that CRONA is "concerned that hospital managers and supervisors may not be complying with their obligation under the contract to provide sleep locations for on-call nurses."
The hospital and CRONA dispute whether the hospital has done enough to ensure the safety of staff members as they've walked to and from their cars.
"Hospital leadership clearly communicated to CRONA information on safe walking paths and parking areas controlled by the medical center. ... Additional lighting is being placed along the safe walking paths of travel we have recommended to CRONA and in parking areas controlled by the medical center," Dicks said.
A security detail patrols the parking lots and offers door-to-door escort between the medical center and parking areas, he said.
But nurses said the door-to-door service has not been consistent, and Johnson confirmed that while the union has requested additional security personnel, "We were told they have five open positions and qualified applicants are limited."
CRONA and the hospital held a meeting on Tuesday to specifically discuss the matter. The hospital and union are also currently in contract negotiations, a union attorney said.
One Packard nurse was circumspect about the problem, saying: "While it may be true that the hospital is not responsible for our safety on public streets or adjacent private property, it is most important to look at the systems and practices the hospital has implemented that put the nurses in harm's way while traveling to and from work and while on call."
Stanford Hospital and Clinics' contract has the same provision. Hospital spokesman James Larkin said all on-call nurses are provided access to a sleeping room upon request. Sleeping accommodations for on-call nursing staff varies by unit. In some areas there is a dedicated room for nurses while in others, a vacant patient room is provided.
Information about rest options is disseminated "through a variety of channels, including their supervisors, training materials, colleagues and their union," he said in an email.
Stanford employs approximately 220 on-call nurses in a variety of units, he said.
The hospital "participates in regular and ongoing communications directly with our nurses and with their union representatives regarding a wide variety of topics, including their rights and responsibilities and factors related to their personal safety and security," he said.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Wayne Martin, a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 10:09 am > But a number of nurses said they were never told
> about the contract provision.
When these nurses voted on the contract, comments like this one make one wonder if they actually read the contract, and had any idea what they were voting for?
[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
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Posted by What is this really about, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 11:04 am What this is really about is upcoming contract negotiations between the nurses and the hospital. They are trying to build a case for more pay and benefits and undoubtedly will want to threaten a strike.
Someone should go check the details on this story as there wasn't a gun involved and she made that part up so one can't trust anything else she says either. Wouldn't be surpirsed if this were a complete fabrication since the gun part is complete rubish.
How about some investigative reporting here. Doesn't take much to find the real facts!
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Posted by David Pepperdine, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 12:47 pm Sure doesn't sound like this is a priority for the hospital. I guess as long as the administrators get their bonuses, the nurses can look after themselves.
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Posted by RealNursesAreBest..., a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 1:03 pm We just need REAL Nurses.
If other nurses are sick, then they should have a TIME that they know how many nurses have to to be on work, and if any other on-calls, the security will walk the RN to the hospital entry.
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Posted by Just another Nurse, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 2:29 pm I have to laugh about the poster who is linking this security issue with ongoing contract talks. There are far bigger issues like chronic under staffing, some of the worse health care benefits of any hospital in the area, etc etc.
The hospital forces the nurses in the operating room to pick up extra "call" time above their already full time work schedule. Many are forced to sleep in cars because after a 18 hour day they are not able to drive home safely.
While the hospital spokesman paints a rosy picture the reality is that when asked for a sleep room, it can take 2-3 hours to get one. SO many simply skip that step in the hopes of getting a few more winks.
Nurses (as do other staff) pay almost $1000 a year to park at the facility. You would expect that basic security would come with that cost. But what it comes with is finger pointing and rapid assignment of blame at any direction OTHER than the hospital.
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Posted by What is this really about, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 3:09 pm Lets remember that many of the nurses at Stanford including my fiancee make $60, $70, $80 an hour depending on experience. They get shift differential of 10% for swing shift, 18% for night shift, and extra pay to work weekends, extra pay to work on call etc.
Lets not feel too sorry for these folks in this economy.
But back to the real issue. There was no gun in the bogus security report. [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
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Posted by diogenes, a resident of another community, on Feb 15, 2013 at 3:28 pm re: a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood.....
if you are so knowledgeable-why don't you post your name to
give yourself some credibility???
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Posted by What is this really about, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 5:39 pm Why should i post my name so you can attack me.
The facts speak for themselves. Go look at the Crona contract for their pay and benefits. I love the fact that my fiancee makes excellent money. I would juts be smart if others stopped complaining about it.
Regarding this alleged gunman lets just have the press do something and get the police report.
When you have the truth you dont need anything else!!
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Posted by XRN, a resident of the Fairmeadow neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 6:13 pm Having worked for Stanford, and Packard is part of Stanford, I know that they are real cheapskates. They blame all their care shortcomings on the nursing shortage, yet they do not hire enough nurses. This has created a crisis in care and at times like now, when there is a flu epidemic. The nurses they have now are badly overworked and underpaid, yet Stanford is much more expensive than El Camino, in spite of the fact that Stanford ( not Packard) is on par with Kaiser in (lack of ) quality of care.
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Posted by Mike, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 7:01 pm How about we get off the Nurses, as they are the ones that take care of our ill, exposing theirselves to illnesses without complaints. All she seems to ask for is some safety.
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Posted by Oh Please, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 8:01 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
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Posted by L & D RN, Packard Hospital, a resident of Mountain View, on Feb 15, 2013 at 9:00 pm First of all, to both of you who accused the nurse who was mugged of lying and making up the FACT that her attacker was armed, SHAME ON YOU!!! How dare you accuse a victim of a crime of making up something such as, this all in the name of negotiating for more money?!! Maybe the question you should really be asking is WHY the details about the mugger being armed were left out of the police report. I, for a fact, know that this information was disclosed to the officer. This has absolutely nothing to do with money. It has to do with safety. And by the way, the nurse who initially contacted the media was not the nurse who was attacked. We give our time as nurses and devote our lives day in and day out taking care of your families. The clear and very concerning issue here is the hospital's lack of accountability and provision for the safety of the nurses, staff, patients and visitors who come onto Stanford property. It's so sad that you completely missed the point. You would both serve hospital administration very well.
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Posted by Concerned staff, a resident of the Green Acres neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 9:16 pm The nurse did not lie. I know her personally and she is someone who does not like to make waves usually. I myself am not a nurse, but I work at Packard Hospital. This is not a contract issue; it is a security issue.
I think that instead of blaming the nurse (who is a very caring and talented RN), the hospital administration should reach out to brainstorm together with the nurses and staff to find a good solution. The construction work has been very disruptive for patients and staff and security issues are everyone's problem.
I would challenge the hospital to come up with nurse on-call rooms and show them to the press so that we can all see the improvements.
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Posted by What is this Really About, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Feb 15, 2013 at 11:08 pm Youre right silly me.
I'm sure she just forgot in the early days of reporting this to her friends and the police that the guy had a gun.
It's a small fact that anyone could leave out of what happened to them.
Im sorry. Forgive me for even suggesting any of this.
My appoligize.
Will someone please do some investigative reporting on this!!!
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Posted by A Noun Ea Mus, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Feb 16, 2013 at 9:12 am I knew reading the headlines, before even delving into the story and the responses, that many of Palo Alto's finest elitists would be chiming in with modern day variants ala "if their cars aren't safe let them sleep on cake". You did not disappoint. But then Madame Guillotine may one day be "The One Per Cent Solution"...mix some French History and English lit twist
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Posted by L & D RN, Packard Hospital, a resident of Mountain View, on Feb 16, 2013 at 9:30 am To: A resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis
I think you've got an incredibly bright idea. Do some investigative reporting yourself. YOU figure out why PAPD omitted details from a police report. You should be very concerned to be a resident of this community and know that your very own police department failed to include all details of a crime that involved weapons. Wonder how often this happens? Guess the police have selective hearing when they gather details of crimes. Wouldn't really want anyone to know that a crime of such nature occurred on/near.......gasp.............Stanford property!
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Posted by PRN, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 18, 2013 at 1:35 am
PRN is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online To those that think that Nurses are overpaid and this is just a ploy related to negotiations.
I feel that you post out of the comfort of your home anonymously without having any true knowledge of what happens behind closed doors of this wonderful institution. What if you were the one that had been robbed and people were judging you for your report of the crime and were then called a liar? Bottom line is, gun or no gun, thefts are happening and the safety of ALL employees is at risk. People love gossip and conspiracy, but this comes down to one simple concept and that is that people should not have to feel unsafe while at work. That this story was about a nurse and there are ongoing contract negotiations is sheer chance. Have some compassion and understanding. This is an issue that essentially should concern all members of the community.
To adress the hourly pay of nurses. Nurses that make 80/hr tend to be nurses that are highly specialized, experienced, and have been working as nurses for decades. These are not nurses that just graduated. It takes a lot of time, work and dedication to get to that point. In this economy, more times than not, this is the only income a family might have. As you all know this is barely enough to make ends meet in the bay area-specially now with the tax increases. So please, do not judge without having a clear understanding of what is REALLY going on.
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