Nurses at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa say they are being stretched too thin. They rallied outside the facility Tuesday to protest what they call a national “hiring freeze” at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
About 160 nurses and other hospital employees showed up over the course of the morning to chant things like, “What do we want? Safe staffing! When do we want it? Now!” on the street outside the facility as passing cars honked in support.
The VA says there is not a national hiring freeze, rather the agency is “strategically” hiring nurses “where needed,” agency press secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement.
Tuesday’s demonstration comes a year after the Tampa hospital opened a new bed tower, adding 96 medical-surgical single-patient rooms and 40 intensive care beds to its main campus.
Nurse Courtenay Summers works in the tower and said staffing hasn’t kept pace with the expansion.
Nurses sometimes have to miss breaks, she said, and there’s often not enough support staff to help with tasks like transporting patients and lab samples. It fuels burnout, but Summers adds it also means patients don’t always get the attention they deserve.
“I come from a family of veterans; my dad and my brother actually receive care here, and so it's very near and dear to my heart that we improve the quality of care, and the only way to do that is to increase the numbers of our staff,” she said.
The rally was one of six that National Nurses United held this month at VA hospitals in places like Miami, New York and Cincinnati.
Justin Wooden helped organize the one in Tampa. He cares for some of the hospital’s sickest patients as a nurse in an intensive care unit.
Nurses in that ICU are often floated out to help in other short-staffed areas, he said, leaving those behind with no support. The hospital also removed aides from the unit this year, which Wooden said adds to the strain.
“Think of your family. You know if they're in a hospital bed and they need something, they hit their call bell for a nurse or someone to help. We have less staff to respond in a quick, shorter time,” he said.
VA: Aggressive hiring tied to PACT Act
Over the past three years, Hayes said, the VA has “aggressively hired nurses nationwide,” adding 14,000 to the workforce to a total of 122,000 nurses, the most in the agency’s history.
The increased hiring was in preparation for a record influx of veterans entering the VA health care system following the passage of the PACT Act, which extended benefits to vets exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances.
In Tampa, Hayes said, staffing growth has remained “consistent.”
“We are on pace to grow at 1% this year,” he said. “In addition, we currently have more than 110 nurses in some stage of the hiring process. We just completed our annual staffing methodology and project additional growth in each of our clinical areas as a result.”
Report identifies "severe" nursing shortages
Staffing shortages have been a problem at the VA for years, as they have been in the private health care sector. That includes other positions too, such as pharmacists.
The issues persist despite the recent hiring expansion, according to a report the VA Office of Inspector General published this month.
The number of severe occupational staffing shortages reported by facilities in fiscal year 2024 was down 5% from the previous year, yet 82% still listed severe shortages for nurses, including the Tampa VA.
Department officials announced this year that budget cuts following the 2023 expansion would require eliminating 10,000 jobs, which they said would happen largely through attrition or not filling certain open positions.
But Dennis McLain, head of the National Nurses United local chapter and a long-time VA employee, said hospitals need more frontline workers to take care of patients safely.
“Everybody knows if you don’t have enough nurses that you can’t take care of people the way you should be,” he said.
McLain added the Tampa VA should do more to retain nurses, calling for the hospital to offer alternative work schedules to incentivize nurses that other VA facilities have had success with recently.
In his statement, the VA's Hayes touted a 3.4% turnover rate, which he said is far lower than the private sector. Hayes also highlighted statistics that show wait times have lowered and patient satisfaction has improved.
“We continue to support our staff and union partners as they are critical members in the delivery of care to veterans in our community,” he said. “We greatly value our collaborative working relationship with our union partners and remain aligned in our goal to strengthen our nursing workforce. VA deeply appreciates our partnership with National Nurses United and will continue to work with them directly to resolve their concerns.”
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