STOCKTON Registered nurses at Dignity Health’s St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton held an action at shift change Wednesday to demand protections when treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday evening, after finishing their shifts, more than 50 nurses stood along California and Maple streets holding signs, wearing surgical masks, and observing social distancing requirements. The action was meant to draw attention to what the nurses said is a critical shortage of personal protective equipment as supplies have dwindled at the hospital.

On Monday, the nurses’ union, the California Nurses Association, sent a list of 12 demands to the hospital administrators that included consistent PPE availability.

"Not only are we out here trying to raise awareness for nurses of St. Joseph’s, but we are part of a bigger collective," said Samantha Tsuda, a registered nurse in St. Joseph’s Respiratory Intensive Care Unit and the nurses’ CNA professional practice committee chairwoman. "We’re part of health care workers. We’re part of nurses in general."

In a statement released Thursday, St. Joseph’s Medical Center said, "We are working with suppliers around the world to obtain additional safety supplies and await the arrival of these supplies soon.

"Additionally, we are working hard to ensure our employees are not only aware of and trained on our PPE protocols, but also that our facility leadership are responding to our staff quickly should they have questions, concerns, or thoughts."

Christine Early, a registered nurse in St. Joseph’s Oncology Department, said the face covering she wore at Wednesday’s action was the same she had worn for three days. Early said she understands there is a national shortage of PPE, but she participated in Wednesday’s action because she fears she might pick up COVID-19 at work, bring it home and infect her children: a 4-year-old and special-needs 1-year old.

"I have to wear this same mask in every patient’s room all day, every shift until it’s visibly soiled," said Early, who has worked at St. Joseph’s for 10 years. "If we don’t see the virus, how soiled do we know the mask is?

"We want to help everyone, but if we’re fallen, we can’t help anyone else."

Tsuda works with patients who have respiratory ailments, including COVID-19. She said some of the nurses wear homemade cloth masks, like the one she wore at Wednesday’s action. She said paper gowns are provided on some days and plastic gowns on others, and that goggles, N95 respirator masks and face shields are not available consistently, and there are no hair or shoe covers.

In the respiratory ICU, where high-risk interventions take place, Tsuda said the nurses have been "begging" for PAPR, powered air-purifying respirators, to safeguard them against contaminated air.

"We just wanted to bring a little more awareness to the community in how we are putting our lives on the line every single day," Tsuda said. "We’re here to take care of our patients and our loved ones, but we also want to be safe so we can go home to our loved ones."

Tsuda said the hospital has admitted "very sick people" and some have recovered. The way the disease is transmitted and manifests itself in patients is unknown to a lot of people, she said.

"So, it’s keeping us on our toes and we’re trying to adapt, as it is," she said. "But I feel like it’s getting hard for us to adapt if we’re not protecting ourselves."

Tsuda said she didn’t know how many COVID-19 patients currently are in the hospital.

"We have seen multiple, multiple positive cases," she said.

Desiree Patterson, an RN at St. Joseph’s who sees COVID-19 patients, said nurses are bracing for more positive cases to impact St. Joseph’s and hospitals nationwide.

"If we’re not prepared for this one, we’re not prepared for the next one," she said.

As of Thursday, there were 369 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths related to the virus in San Joaquin County, according to San Joaquin County Public Health. A registered nurse whose job included placing incoming Kaiser Permanente patients to the appropriate care and treatment departments at St. Joseph’s, as well as training other nurses, Jeffrey Baumbach, 57, of Lodi, died earlier this month from complications of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. The Stockton Record reported on April 3 it was unclear where he contracted the disease.

Contact reporter Bob Highfill at (209) 546-8277 or jhighfill@recordnet.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobhighfill.