Medical center nurses threatening to strike

KISSIMMEE, Fla.,None — Hundreds of nurses at Osceola Regional Medical Center are threatening to strike. The hospital has been at the center of several high profile criminal cases recently. The nurses say they're concerned about patient care.

A group of nurses gathered outside Osceola Regional Medical Center Wednesday afternoon threatening to strike if changes don't come to the embattled hospital. The nurses' primary complaint is about patient care.

"Patient safety, and for us to have a voice in patient care. Right now our voices are not heard," said nurse Marissa Lee.

The nurses are unionizing because they say pay is low and the staff is short. Two hundred complaints have been logged by nurses in the last year alone.

The nurses say administrators at this hospital don't respond to their complaints about patient care situations. Some of the incidents that have happened at the hospital have made it into WFTV newscasts.

In the last six months Matthew Scheidt, 17, was arrested for posing as a nurse at the hospital.

In another case, Shean Galvin was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two patients

Other problems are not publicized but still dangerous, the nurses say.

"We can't teach them about medications because we're in such a rush," said Lee.

The nurses say if changes don't come along with a new union contract they will strike. They say patients are already taking note of the problems.

"We're working with short staff, high demand and lack of equipment, and they're noticing it," said nurse Nicholas DeStefano.

WFTV called the owners of the medical center, Hospital Corporation of America, but their representatives have not returned the calls.

WFTV