SAUSALITO, CA (ASRN.ORG) -- University of California medical center nurses say with too many patients and not enough staff, they are being spread too thin.

The California Nurses Association, the union representing 10,800 UC nurses around the state, has been publicly airing its complaints, with rallies staged recently at 12 locations, including UC and other hospitals where union members work.

The nurses had planned a one-day strike, but a San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a restraining order against the strike on behalf of the Public Employment Relations Board.

The union's contract with UC forbids nurses from striking unless they have exhausted every avenue of bargaining, including a fact-finding procedure. There will be a second hearing on June 18 about whether the union can legally strike.

Nurse Caitlin Jarvis, who provides transitional care and telemetry (using machines that monitor patients' vital signs) at UC San Francisco, said she usually has four patients—and that is too many under state law.

"It compromises the care I can give to patients," she said. "Every day, I'm lucky if I get 45 minutes of break."

State law does not give ratios for nurses doing more than one type of patient care. The ratio for telemetry nursing is four patients per nurse. Jarvis said having a work load of four patients prevents her from taking adequate break time and has meant that some patients might be left on their bed pans for up to 45 minutes.

California law requires that nurses receive 75 minutes of break per 12-hour shift.

The union says staffing shortages are connected to a hiring freeze enacted in fall 2008 that slowed replacement of employees lost through attrition.

UC officials maintain that they are adhering to legal nurse-to-patient ratios. In a prepared statement, they said: "Union allegations about inadequate staffing simply have no merit."

"If there were problems with staffing, we would be getting lots of grievances, and we haven't been getting grievances," said UC spokesman Steve Montiel.

Beth Kean, the union’s chief negotiator, said nurses' staffing concerns were being presented to administrators at each hospital, following protocol. At UCSF, she said, arbitration in which a third party would make recommendations about staffing had been scheduled for June 3 and 4. The hospital canceled when the union announced its one-day strike. "We've tried and tried and tried," Kean said. "We've been very involved with this every day."

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