With the continued surge in COVID-19 weighing on Humboldt County’s overwhelmed healthcare system, Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka is struggling to retain staff. Days after they were hired, four traveling nurses stopped abruptly, adding further strain to the already understaffed hospital.

Of the 42 Humboldt Counties currently hospitalized for a COVID-19-related illness, nine were in intensive care, leaving only six intensive care beds available for other patients, according to data released Friday California Health and Human Services Agency.

Providence hired eight new traveling nurses last week – six RNs in intensive care and two respiratory therapists – according to a Providence press release on Wednesday. The sisters quit the next day.

Ian Seldon, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association, said the nurses left St. Joseph Hospital due to insufficient resources.

“However, it appears that travelers were received without the necessary resources, including access to the unit’s electronic map system, and were given full patient assignments instantly with little guidance. So four out of six (travel nurses) quit, ”said Seldon. “In the words of one of them, the travelers were ‘thrown into the wolves’ and with all the options available to travelers today, they just didn’t come back.”

James Ladika, a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital and treasurer of the Professional Practice Committee, said, “This experience has further shaken my confidence in the hospital administration.”

Matthew Miele, a nurse in the emergency room at Providence St. Joseph Hospital, said he noticed more traveling nurses in the hospital but didn’t know four had stopped.

“I feel that our resources are very thinly distributed,” he said. “I often have to spend time at work looking for equipment such as thermometers, IV pumps and channels, or devices for monitoring my heart and vital parameters.”

Dr. Roberta Luskin-Hawk, MD, executive director of Providence in Humboldt County, said the nurses’ departure was “an unfortunate and unique circumstance.”

“Some of the travelers who came to us because of our request to the medical health coordinator did not stay in our hospitals,” she said. “The main reason was that they were not familiar with our electronic health record system – a system used by many hospitals. In addition, there were problems with onboarding these nurses, which made it difficult for them to get used to our hospital. “

Roberta Luskin-Hawk, General Manager of St. Joseph Hospital (Times-Standard file)

Luskin-Hawk said Providence will continue to work with the medical health coordinator to find additional staff for St. Joseph Hospital as well as the Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.

“We will continue to aggressively seek additional resources, as we have throughout the pandemic, focused on assisting our caregivers as they respond to the large numbers of patients who are in need of hospital services amid this spike in COVID, while at the same time the vital health needs of our community from open heart surgery and trauma care to cancer treatment, ”she said. “In addition to meeting the immediate needs of our communities, we look forward to moving to a more widespread electronic health record system in the coming weeks and will continue to work on additional projects that will improve our health care system in the near term and for years to come.”

Luskin-Hawk noted that the medical health operations coordinator was having a hard time keeping up with demand.

“The agencies seem to have more demand than they can handle,” she said. “The application was updated in collaboration with Public Health and submitted (Thursday) with information on the current census and capacity.”

Isabella Vanderheiden can be reached at 707-441-0504.

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