Dominican Hospital nurses plan June 30 picket over proposed staffing cuts

Registered nurses at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California, plan an informational picket on Tuesday, June 30, to raise concerns about proposed staffing cuts by CommonSpirit Health. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United said the proposed layoffs would jeopardize patient safety and weaken the quality of care at the hospital.

The union said CommonSpirit sent layoff notices on June 1 to more than 20 nurses and other staff members across the hospital. According to the announcement, the proposed cuts include five of the six nurse educators who help maintain clinical competencies, provide ongoing training for nurses, and support safe, evidence-based care.

The notices also include nine unit coordinators, who handle communication, patient flow, and administrative work across the hospital. Nurses said these coordinators also answer calls from family members and take on other tasks that allow bedside nurses to stay focused on patients.

In addition, the hospital has proposed cutting eight monitor technicians. Nurses said these workers play an important role in continuously watching cardiac telemetry and often identify life-threatening changes that require immediate intervention.

Nurses at Dominican Hospital said the changes would raise the risk of communication breakdowns, delays in treatment, preventable errors, and worse patient outcomes. They said the cuts would remove support roles that are essential to keeping care safe and efficient.

“We who work at Dominican hospital are devoted to ensuring the highest quality of care for our Santa Cruz County community,” said Erin Johsnon, RN in the interventional radiology unit. “Unfortunately, it appears the decision-makers at CommonSpirit care much more about the bottom line than the patients they serve, and their actions are a clear indication of that. We are calling on CommonSpirit to rescind the layoff notices of our valuable staff members and work with us to create an optimal healing environment for our patients.”

The picket is scheduled for Tuesday, June 30, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Dominican Hospital, 1555 Soquel Drive, Santa Cruz, California 95065. The nurses said the event is intended to demand no cuts and safe staffing.

Union nurses also said patients have already felt the effects of chronic understaffing. They pointed to emergency department wait times of up to five hours and delays in transfers to higher-acuity units such as telemetry and the ICU. They said nurses are often asked to care for patients with increasingly complex needs without enough staffing support.

Over the last year, nurses said they have also been forced to take on work normally handled by patient care technicians, including one-on-one supervision for the most vulnerable patients. They said those added responsibilities make it harder to provide optimal care to every patient.

“Dominican Hospital has continuously failed to adequately staff our units while asking nurses to do more with less,” said Crystal Crafton, RN, chief nurse representative. “These cuts place additional burdens on frontline caregivers and remove critical support systems that help keep patients safe. Short staffing is not safe for our patients and is unfair to our nurses, and is harmful to our community. Administration must stop these cuts and invest in safe patient care.”

According to the nurses, they have offered ideas to address staffing challenges and improve efficiency, but the hospital has not adequately responded to those recommendations. The union said federal statistics show a decline in the number of nursing hours devoted to each patient at Dominican Hospital over the past 10 years.

The nurses also said the emergency department has seen a 29 percent increase in life-threatening cases since 2014, without a corresponding increase in staffing to meet the level of care those patients require. They argued that the hospital needs more support, not fewer staff members, to handle patient needs safely.

The press release also said CommonSpirit has the resources to address the hospital’s needs. It cited tax filings showing that from 2020 to 2024, the top 10 CommonSpirit executives were paid more than $310.5 million in total. It also said the company’s CEO received a compensation package worth more than $14 million for fiscal year 2025.

CNA/NNU represents 700 registered nurses at Dominican Hospital. NNOC/NNU, including CNA, represents more than 17,000 CommonSpirit Health nurses at 33 facilities across the country. California Nurses Association/National Nurses United described itself as 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 in California and more than 225,000 registered nurses nationwide.