ORLANDO, Fla. – Tuesday morning, the nurses’ union at HCA Florida-Osceola protested a recent move by the hospital to close the nursery unit, which provides delivery as well as postpartum support to parents and newborns.


What You Need To Know

  • HCA Osceola will cut its nursery unit on Dec. 12

  • The nurses’ union, National Nurses United, opposes the decision

  • Nurses providing neonatal care say the move will threaten patient safety

Virginia England, who works in the nursery unit, said the news that her position would be cut devastated her. 

“I love my job,” said England. “I love my babies, I love being a nursery nurse.” 

England and her colleagues in the nursery unit help with delivery and monitoring the babies for complications afterward. Sometimes, they care for infants for an hour or two while the new mother recovers.

“I teach the mom how to breastfeed, I explain to them how the baby needs to sleep,” said England. “Safety, safety, safety for the baby.”

In a statement, HCA Osceola’s Chief Nursing Officer, Michelle Faris, said that because the hospital emphasizes keeping parents and newborns in the same room, they have less need for the nursery unit.

She wrote that nurses in the nursery unit would be re-trained to work on the newborn intensive care unit.

“We have adopted evidence-based practices consistent with The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) as it is widely known that keeping mothers and newborns together promotes optimal outcomes for both mom and baby,” wrote Farris.

The nurses’ union, National Nurses United, opposes the decision. The union said it is because parents are learning to take care of their newborn that the specialized care provided by nursery staff is so important. 

“The newborn nursery and its staff provide essential services that patients need – especially our high-risk population, and we have a lot of high-risk patients,” said Cassandra Gomes, a registered nurse in the labor and delivery unit. “Those patients in particular need more services, not less.”

The nursery unit is scheduled to be eliminated on December 12.