Throughout a typical nursing shift at VA Medical Middle San Diego, Andrea Johnson mentioned she barely has time to catch her breath between room checks, household consults and affected person requests.
“What occurs when you lower housekeeping employees, and it falls to us to get rooms cleaned?” she requested. “If dietary employees is lower, will nurses need to tackle the accountability to ship meal trays? Who’s going to deal with scheduling to verify a mattress is on the market?
“All of these issues have an effect on our time and our potential to take care of our veterans.”
Johnson, a seven-year worker of VA, was considered one of dozens of division nurses rallying outdoors the California hospital Wednesday to protest an array of strikes by President Donald Trump’s administration that they are saying unnecessarily threatens the well being of veterans and federal employees.
The occasion, deliberate by the Nationwide Nurses Organizing Committee and Nationwide Nurses United, or NNU, adopted comparable protests in New York, Chicago, North Carolina and different websites in latest weeks. Extra are scheduled via the top of the month.
“We’re not going to allow them to simply bully the employees,” mentioned Irma Westmoreland, an official at NNU and a VA nurse working in Georgia for the final 34 years. “We’re not going to allow them to do issues which are unlawful. We’re not going to allow them to simply hearth individuals for no purpose.”
The rallies had been initially conceived to protest looming staffing cuts throughout the division. VA Secretary Doug Collins has proposed trimming the workforce again to 2019 personnel ranges, which might eradicate round 80,000 positions throughout the division.
VA officers have emphasised that these cuts won’t impression providers or advantages and mentioned positions to be eradicated won’t be ones which straight work with veterans or members of the family. In a press release, VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz dismissed the protests as fear-mongering and exaggeration.
“Positions which are vital to offering care to veterans — together with nursing positions — won’t be affected by efforts to make VA extra environment friendly,” he mentioned. “VA’s focus is on streamlining administrative capabilities, eliminating redundancies, and decreasing managerial administration burdens with out hurting veteran care.”
However nurses like Johnson and Westmoreland — and Democratic lawmakers vital of the plans — insist employee cuts of that scale will inevitably damage veterans’ care, even when the consequences are oblique.
“We’re already unfold method too skinny,” mentioned Beverly Simpson, a VA nurse who works in West Virginia. “Any extra cuts or duties impacts the standard of the well being care that the veterans obtain, and it makes a lot extra room for errors to happen.”
Officers from NNU have lamented VA’s nurse hiring practices for years, saying the division has not been aggressive sufficient in correctly staffing hospitals to satisfy rising wants.
Now, they mentioned, the issue is getting even worse.
Trump introduced a federal hiring freeze earlier this yr, however exempted some vital jobs like VA well being care posts. Nonetheless, NNU leaders have mentioned the uncertainty over future job cuts has led many members to begin looking for jobs elsewhere and is discouraging potential recruits.
VA leaders dispute these claims. They mentioned of the 91,000 nursing jobs within the VA system, about 8,800 are unfilled now — a emptiness fee decrease than most different main medical methods.
“There’s a nationwide scarcity of nurses that makes recruiting and retention tough throughout the well being care sector,” Kasperowicz mentioned. “We proceed to reveal the flexibility to draw nurses to VA, and we have now employed greater than 1,600 nurses within the first half of [fiscal] 2025.”
He additionally challenged union officers to supply particulars of personnel shortages to VA administration, so these issues may be addressed. Union officers mentioned previous complaints in regards to the issues have gone unanswered.
Additional complicating the battle are White Home strikes to cut back federal union protections. As these collective bargaining fights are being debated in court docket, the nurses’ rallies have grown to incorporate a coalition of different federal employees, native union representatives and a number of other veterans advocacy teams.
Division officers mentioned closing plans for VA jobs cuts are nonetheless being developed and reviewed, with a watch towards stopping issues in advantages and well being care supply.
In a social media put up just some days after the primary nurses rally, Collins mentioned that too many critics “view the VA as a federal jobs program” and are pushing as an alternative to “preserve a dysfunctional established order” on the division.
“Our shared aim must be making issues higher for veterans quite than defending the division’s damaged forms,” he mentioned.
However these assurances haven’t gained over the nurses protesting outdoors VA places. Officers mentioned they may hold holding the occasions till their considerations are heard, and till a smart plan for VA staffing ranges is made public.
“When the unions band along with the group, there isn’t something we will’t accomplish,” Westmoreland mentioned. “We’re going to cease this. We’re going to ensure that our VA is protected for our veterans.”
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White Home for Navy Instances. He has coated Washington, D.C. since 2004, specializing in navy personnel and veterans insurance policies. His work has earned quite a few honors, together with a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 Nationwide Headliner Award, the IAVA Management in Journalism award and the VFW Information Media award.
