About FlashAlert on Twitter:
FlashAlert utilizes the free service Twitter to distribute emergency text messages. While you are welcome to register your cell phone text message address directly into the FlashAlert system, we recommend that you simply "follow" the FlashAlert account for Oregon Nurses Assn. by clicking on the link below and logging in to (or creating) your free Twitter account. Twitter sends messages out exceptionally fast thanks to arrangements they have made with the cell phone companies.
Click here to add Oregon Nurses Assn. to your Twitter account or create one.
@OregonNurses
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION (ONA): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FOjhbf3_LPwO1r67rgL-GUQo0imlkQ0m?usp=sharing
(PORTLAND, Ore.) Jan. 3, 2022 – More than 100 cars waited in line this morning outside OHSU’s drive-up COVID-19 testing site for workers. The backlog led to lines of cars leading out of the parking lot where tests are done and onto hospital access roads—delaying patients’ access to health care services.
“As an ER nurse, I’m worried people won’t have efficient access to the emergency department,” said Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) member Julie Jorgensen, an emergency department nurse at OHSU. “OHSU’s campus is difficult to navigate on the best of days. We’ve started the omicron surge and hospitals need to be better prepared to test and treat health care workers and patients quickly.”
ONA nurses have repeatedly called on OHSU to increase access to COVID-19 testing in advance of the omicron surge, including during a COVID-19 task force meeting last week where nurses asked for additional staff to assist with COVID-19 testing, exposure tracking and other occupational health support.
OHSU’s own COVID-19 projections show more Oregonians will need hospital care for COVID-19 in January 2022 than at any other time in the pandemic—further straining understaffed nurses and health care workers and hindering Oregonians’ access to many types of health care treatments.
ONA encourages OHSU and other health care systems to staff up, listen to and support frontline health care workers. We also ask all Oregonians who are eligible to get your COVID-19 vaccine or booster, mask up indoors or in crowded outdoor spaces, stay home if you are sick and get tested if you are concerned.
Find information on COVID-19 vaccines, boosters and testing here: https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19
# # #
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union which represents 15,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state including more than 3,000 nurses at OHSU. Our mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit: www.OregonRN.org.