California’s telemetry nurses, who specialize in the electronic monitoring of critically ill patients, normally take care of four patients at once. But ever since the state relaxed California’s mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in mid-December, Nerissa Black has had to keep track of six.
And these six patients are really sick: they all need constant electronic heart monitoring and many of them are being treated simultaneously for a stroke and COVID-19, or a heart attack and COVID-19. With more patients than usual needing more complex care, Black says she’s worried she’ll miss something or make a mistake.
“We are given 50% more patients and we’re expected to do 50% more things with the same amount of time,” says Black, who has worked at the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, Calif., for the past seven years. “I go home and I feel like I could have done more. I don’t feel like I’m giving the care to my patients like a human being deserves.”
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