About 50 nurses and community members picketed outside Paul Bunyan Park Tuesday afternoon.
According to a release from the Minnesota Nurses Association, the group was rallying behind a registered nurse who had reportedly been placed on administrative leave.
According to MNA, she was trying to arrange alternative housing solutions for quarantining health care workers.
Sanford Bemidji’s VP of Nursing Joy Johnson said that as of late last week, there have not been any hospitalized patients with COVID-19, and alternative housing at a hotel room would be at the worker’s expense.
Sanford Bemidji, according to Johnson, had also not furloughed staff as many large hospitals did when elective surgeries were postponed per executive order.
The picketers Tuesday afternoon held signs urging the protection of nurses, while standing at least six feet apart and wearing masks.
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