Nurses say a lack of critical equipment and up to 12 hours of working without breaks leads to burnout and qualified nurses leaving the hospital.

Media Advisory

For: June 23, 2026

CONTACT: Sam Ribakoff – (626) 818-7901

On Tuesday, dozens of Registered Nurses, represented by SEIU 121RN outside Kindred Hospital Ontario in Ontario.

Nurses report that they lack equipment every hospital needs to safely care for patients. Monitors to track vital signs thermometers and other basic tools are often missing or inoperable at Kindred Hospital Ontario.

Contract negotiations between the nurses’ union, SEIU 121RN and Kindred Health began in February. Throughout negotiations, nurses have proposed solutions to improve safety and working conditions at the hospital, but management has failed to adequately respond to these proposals. leading nurses to picket demand hospital management listen to their proposals, nurses said.

“Nurses have to bring their own thermometers because the hospital doesn’t have any that actually work,” said Heather Linares, a nurse who works in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. “Every time we make a proposal to management, we are met with delays and excuses we are met with delays and excuses. It’s like they don’t want to listen to us. They don’t want to listen to the truth.”

Nurses say the hospital doesn’t even have a working intercom system.

“My voice is our intercom system. If someone has a call, I’m yelling down the hallway,” said MedSurg RN Merthine Thomas Claiborne. “The absence of such basic equipment, which all hospitals should have, makes our jobs harder.”

Nurses say they’re also unable to take legally required meals and rest breaks—even during shifts lasting 12 hours or more—because the hospital provides no dedicated break relief.

Multiple studies have shown that medical errors and worker burnout increase when nurses are fatigued.

“Obviously you’re tired, so it’s a safety issue,” Linares said about missing her breaks. “A meal break is not just for food though; it’s being away from your computer and your work so you can decompress.”

Shifts also run short on support staff, forcing lone nurses to care for gravely ill or incapacitated patients that should be supported by a full team.

“Patients coming from the ICU to other units can decline quickly,” Thomas Claiborne said. “When that happens, resource nurses have to leave the floor to manage them and can’t provide break relief for other RNs. It’s basically inadequate staffing,”

Nurses have raised these concerns repeatedly throughout contract negotiations, but none have led to improvements in the hospital or progress at the bargaining table. They fear that left unresolved; these problems will lead to more qualified nurses leaving the hospital, creating a downward spiral of dwindling staff and worsening patient care.

“They have a retention problem,” Thomas Claiborne said about the hospital. “You just had five nurses that left this year. They get treated better at other hospitals that actually have working equipment, that’s why people leave.”

SEIU 121RN represents 70 nurses at Kindred Hospital Ontario.

No strike has been called during the present negotiations.

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SEIU Local 121RN represents registered nurses and other healthcare professionals in California.

This member-led organization is committed to supporting optimum working conditions that allow nurses to provide quality patient care and safety.