Hi {{first_name|nurse,}}
Uh-oh. There’s a new strike looming.
This one’s coming out of Inglewood, California, where RNs at Centinela Hospital Medical Center (Prime Healthcare) just gave notice for a one-day strike on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
And if your first reaction is, “Yep… I get it,” you’re probably already living the same story in a different building.
What they’re saying (in plain language)
Centinela nurses are calling this strike over unsafe staffing and patient safety.
The kind of unsafe that doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet… but shows up on the floor:
assignments that feel impossible to do safely
no room to breathe between tasks
always being “one call-out away” from chaos
pressure to “just make it work” even when it’s clearly not working
One of their nurses said they’re striking because patient safety is being put at risk every day, and chronic short staffing makes it harder to give patients the care they deserve.
That’s not dramatic. That’s a Tuesday.
Why now
They’ve been negotiating a new contract since July 2025 and say there’s been little to no movement on the things that keep nurses at the bedside:
safe staffing language that means something
real investment in nursing staff
better retention so the unit isn’t a revolving door
They also held a strike authorization vote on Jan. 14, described as nearly unanimous. That kind of vote usually means nurses have been swallowing the same problems for a long time… and finally hit the “enough” point.
Why should you care
Even if you’ve never set foot in that hospital, this matters for a few reasons:
Hospitals watch each other. If one group of nurses pushes back publicly, other systems pay attention — and so do executives.
Staffing problems don’t stay local. Understaffing is contagious. It spreads through float pools, traveler dependence, turnover, and burnout. You feel it even if your badge says a different logo.
This is the same story in different scrubs. When nurses say “unsafe staffing,” it usually means missed breaks, impossible ratios, and a shift where you leave feeling like you ran a marathon while carrying guilt you didn’t earn.
It’s a sign of where things are headed. When contract talks stall and staffing stays rough, strikes don’t come out of nowhere. They come out of exhaustion.
Our honest thoughts
Here’s the truth: nobody wants a strike.
Nurses strike when they feel ignored long enough that the only way to be heard is to stop the machine. That’s a brutal choice. You’re thinking about your patients, your coworkers, your bills, and your own limits all at once.
And at the same time… staffing is not a “preference.” It’s a safety issue. If a hospital can’t staff safely, the risk doesn’t land on the executives. It lands on the nurse at the bedside who will be asked to carry the impossible.
So if Centinela nurses are saying, “This is unsafe, and we’re done pretending it’s normal,” I take that seriously. Most nurses don’t go public unless the situation has been bad for a while.
One question for you
If this happened at your facility, what would be the breaking point?
Reply with one line:
What’s the staffing situation you’re tired of pretending is “fine”?
Talk soon,
Jason
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