RNs demand CommonSpirit Health rescind layoff\u00a0notices<\/p>\n
Registered nurses will hold an informational picket on Thursday, July 16 in Bakersfield, Calif., to protest proposed health care staffing reductions and service cuts at CommonSpirit Health\u2019s Dignity Health Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and Dignity Health Mercy Hospitals (Downtown and Southwest) that will jeopardize patient care. Nurses are demanding that CommonSpirit immediately rescind all layoff notices and work with nurses to ensure safe staffing according to patient acuity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CommonSpirit, the parent company of Dignity Health, informed\u00a0several dozen health care workers, including registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses, that layoffs are set to take effect by August 3, 2026. Nurses say the loss of this critical health care staff will lead to delays in care and jeopardize patient safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen hospitals cut nurses and other health workers, patient care suffers,\u201d said Sandy Reding, RN at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and president of CNA.\u00a0\u201cThe work doesn\u2019t disappear, it gets pushed onto fewer caregivers. Medications are delayed, call lights will go unanswered, and wait times in the ER will increase. Every minute we spend doing work that was once handled by educators, unit secretaries, licensed vocational nurses, or other support staff is time taken away from direct patient care.\u00a0 Our patients deserve better, and that\u2019s why we are speaking out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who:\u00a0Registered nurses as CommonSpirit\u2019s Bakersfield Memorial Hospital,\u00a0 Mercy Hospital Downtown, and Mercy Hospital Southwest
What: Informational picket
When: Thursday, July 16 6- 9 a.m.\u00a0\u00a0
Where:\u00a0Mercy Hospital Downtown
2215 Truxtun Ave., Bakersfield, Calif.
Picket will be outside the main entrance to the hospital<\/p>\n
Layoff notices went to a variety of health care workers at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospitals,including:<\/p>\n
A registered nurse educator. This nurse works at the CommonSpirit facilities to\u00a0ensure staff maintain clinical competencies, provide ongoing training to all nurses, and assist in overseeing and providing safe, evidence-based care.A safety nurse at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital who provides a second layer of protection ensuring medication order and lab orders are responded to appropriately and in a timely manner.Licensed vocational nurses who work in the emergency department at all the facilities.\u00a0Transcriptionists, orderlies, and unit secretaries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nurses know that when positions, the work is pushed onto the remaining nurses and other ancillary staff. This makes it harder for nurses and others to deliver high-quality patient care. Cuts in staffing means delays in care for patients, which leads to poorer outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
News of these layoffs come after CommonSpirit closed the\u00a0Grossman burn unit<\/a> at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital on June 30, 2026 depriving Kern County of specialized lifesaving care.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hospital management has suggested that cuts to staffing are made in response to a changing financial landscape. However, nurses note that CommonSpirit\u00a0has the resources to address the hospital\u2019s needs. According to its tax filings, from 2020-2024 the top 10 CommonSpirit executives were paid in excess of $310.5 million. Its CEO took home a compensation package worth\u00a0more than $14 million<\/a> for fiscal year 2025.<\/p>\n CNA represents\u00a01,500\u00a0nurses at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, Mercy Hospital Downtown, and Mercy Hospital Southwest. CNA\/National Nurses Organizing Committee represents more than 17,000 nurses at 33 CommonSpirit facilities across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n California Nurses Association\/National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 100,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout California and more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RNs demand CommonSpirit Health rescind layoff\u00a0notices Registered nurses will hold an informational picket on Thursday, July 16 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-398178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}