Santa Monica Nurses, Suspended For Demanding Masks, Back On Job

SANTA MONICA, CA — Santa Monica nurse Allison Mayol never expected to be hailed a hero in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Mayol is one of 10 nurses at a Santa Monica hospital suspended with pay after refusing to treat coronavirus patients without N95 respirator masks. These nurses have now been reinstated and will go back to work, but they were given written warnings in their employment records, the state nurses union announced Wednesday.

At least 15 nurses at Providence Saint John’s Health Center refused to treat coronavirus patients last week unless they were given N95 masks or better, according to the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. Ten of those nurses were subsequently suspended. Though it cost them, their stance made a difference.

Providence is now providing the N95 masks to nurses treating COVID-19 patients. Mayol will head back to work, but she and her co-workers have disciplinary actions on their records, she told Patch.

“The nurses have been reinstated, but with disciplinary actions,” Mayol said. “That is pretty upsetting to us because it feels we’re being punished for standing up for patient safety and our safety. As nurses, our job is not to obey orders — it’s to advocate for our safety and our patients’ safety. And it’s upsetting to us that we’ve been punished for doing that part of our job when it’s the base of nursing in general.”

Health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic aren’t just facing a battle to keep the public healthy but also to stay healthy themselves.

“For me personally, it’s been kind of a roller coaster,” Mayol told Patch. “Prior to all this happening, I was struggling to not feel selfish for worrying about my own health in the midst of this.”

Some nurses are facing challenges outside hospitals and when they’re out in public. During the coronavirus pandemic, some people are afraid to be around hospital workers.

“It’s very heartbreaking because I know people who personally have been turned away from stores, even though they haven’t stepped foot inside a hospital or a store yet,” Mayol said.

“People just think that they’re carrying whatever is in the hospital around with them, on their bodies, other clothes with them,” she said. “But I think that health care workers are very aware of the way that this can spread, and they’re hyper aware compared to the general public with hand hygiene and generally with keeping healthy.”

Nurses need support, both on and off the job, she added.

“It is hard for health care workers to talk about [the pandemic] because there’s no denying that it’s the center of everyone’s minds,” Mayol said. “It changes the way everyone is acting in their daily lives. It’s the same for health care workers when they go home. We are so at risk for contracting it because of our line of work. It’s very scary. I think that during this and after all this, we need to have more resources available, psychologically as well.”

Nurses and supporters drove in a caravan outside St. John’s Hospital on Tuesday in an act of solidarity for the 10 suspended nurses who requested N95 respirator masks to care for COVID-19 patients, calling for better staff protections.

“People had written on their cars to support nurses,” Mayol said. “There were some nurses from other hospitals who showed up in solidarity.”

“I have had such an outpour of support from other nurses and the community for standing up for safety,” she said. “I keep in mind how many people I keep healthy and alive in the future if I stay alive and I stay healthy right now.”

Providence officials said their nurses were always provided with protective equipment outlined in guidelines in set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the state.

“These nurses had been provided CDC-approved masks for the level of care they were providing, protocol practiced at hospitals across the nation,” a Providence official told City News Service on Wednesday. “Thankfully, our organization has begun receiving shipments of N95 masks, so we now are able to offer all nurses that higher level of mask, easing their concerns.”

The hospital also touted its safety record in a statement released Tuesday.

“While one caregiver infection is too many, less than 0.17 percent of our 35,000 caregivers across our entire Southern California delivery network have contracted COVID-19 in the workplace since the pandemic began compared to national statistics that place the infection rate at 11 percent,” the statement said.

The hospital declined to comment specifically on the reinstated nurses’ disciplinary status, citing employee privacy issues.

“We are asking our hospital for transparency in their personal protective equipment because the truth is we have no idea how many masks they have, and we have asked and asked for them to include us in that conversation, and we have not been included so far,” Mayol said. “The administration has been making decisions for the nurses, and we want to be involved in that decision.”

Mayol encouraged the public to keep supporting health care workers. There’s a petition on protectnurses.org.

“I want the public to know this a fight that we want to fight well and safely,” Mayol said. “And if they want to support us, they can visit and sign the petition”

– City News Service contributed to this report.

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