Standing in front of a sign that read “Area’s only level three neonatal intensive care unit,” a group of over 30 nurses gathered in front of the HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee Tuesday morning to protest the closure of the nursery.
The nurses are angry over the planned closure of the hospital’s nursery and argue that this move will create unsafe conditions for newborns, their parents and the overworked, short-staffed nurses.
The plan is to close the nursery Dec.12 and route newborns to the neonatal intensive care unit if the mothers cannot care for their children for any reason, hospital spokesperson Valerie Wickboldt said.
“It’s my job to watch the baby for the first six hours after they’re born,” said Virginia England, a nursery unit nurse. “Once it’s over six hours if they’re not breathing properly that’s an automatic admission into the NICU but the thing is, who’s going to watch a baby for those first hours?”
England, who has been working in the nursery unit at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital for eight years, said she has seen several experienced nurses leave the hospital, leaving fewer to watch over and train new nurses.
The hospital’s website is currently advertising four labor and delivery nursing positions, four NICU positions and around 100 registered nursing positions.
“The reason we are fighting so hard is that we believe in our job, we believe that the nursery is part of patient care at the hospital,” England said. “Having me there, I am backup for that baby.”
England said nursery nurses help new parents understand how to care for their baby and take newborns to the nursery to give mothers needed rest.
Susan Shortall has been a labor and delivery nurse at HCA Florida Osceola for 17 years and said she is worried about the short-staffed labor nurses who often don’t have time to continuously check on the baby after they’re born.
“I remember a time when a mom dropped her baby because she was so tired and on medication for pain,” Shortall said. “The baby had a brain bleed but it was OK and I can’t even begin to tell you how horrible the mom felt.”
Shortall said this incident highlights the reason why nurseries are important for new moms, because it allows them to get rest.
“I love my job but [resigning] is on the table for me,” Shortall said, while in a cast from a recent fall that left her foot broken after leaving her usual 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.
Nurses from other units came out to show support, holding signs that read “Nurses care about babies, do you?” and “Your newborn is not safe here.” Some were chanting “patients, not profits” while cars passing by honked in support.
Vicky Ortiz, an intensive care unit nurse, came out after a full night shift and held up a sign to show support for her fellow nurses.
“It could be my unit next,” Ortiz said. “So, if I come out and support them, if something happens to us, then they will support us, too.”
In a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, Michelle Farris, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, said HCA Florida Osceola is offering nursery nurses opportunities to cross-train with NICU teams and NICU-trained nurses are leading the advanced-level cases.
“We have adopted evidence-based practices consistent with The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) as it is widely known that keeping mothers and newborns together promotes optimal outcomes for both mom and baby,” Farris said. “Because of this, HCA Florida Osceola Hospital has a decreased need for nursery services because healthy term babies are typically cared for in the room with their mothers and our preterm or vulnerable babies are cared for by our specialized team in the NICU. If a mother is unable to provide care for her healthy-term newborn for any reason, the baby would receive care in the NICU during that time.”
Nurses said they are being forced into the NICU and the training practices aren’t enough.
Biljana Sipka, a labor and delivery nurse at HCA Florida Osceola since 2019, said she is worried labor and delivery nurses are going to have a larger workload, which could lead to nurses being forced to treat patients too quickly in an attempt to fill gaps.
“They are pushing us too much,” Sipka said. “We are short-staffed already so how are NICU nurses going to train new nurses when they already have so many patients?”
najaramillo@orlandosentinel.com
