The nursing shortage is hitting counties across California, but the California Nurses Association says it's not so much a nursing shortage as it is a staffing crisis.

In Stanislaus County, local nurses say the issue isn't about finding more people to join the field; it's about getting experienced nurses back to the bedside.

Doctors Medical Center nurse Kristi Carson said the current staffing crisis is a manufactured one.

"In California alone, there are more than 150,000 licensed nurses with active licenses who choose not to work at the bedside because of the working conditions," Carson said.

The number is actually slightly higher, according to the California Nurses Association, with 180,000 registered nurses not employed as RNs across California in May of last year and over 1.1 million nationwide.

Carson says she spends many 13-hour shifts with no lunch and few bathroom breaks.

"Nurses love patients," Carson said. "Nurses love their work. What they do, what is challenging, is the working conditions."

It's a frustration echoed across hospitals in the county.

"As nurses, we're there for the patient," said Lorena Burkett, a radiation oncology nurse. "We're there to advocate for them."

At Turlock's Emanuel Medical Center, Burkett said she's seen staffing numbers dwindle while hospital systems report record profits. 

"It's profit over patient safety at this point," Burkett said. 

The corporation behind both Burkett's and Carson's hospital systems reported a net income of $4.1 billion in 2024, up from $1.3 billion in 2023. 

"Patients sit in soiled linens," Carson said. "They don't get changed as quickly as they could if you had adequate staffing. A big problem is patients getting up to go to the bathroom and falling without assistance."

"We are made to work," Burkett said. "We went through a pandemic. We can do it. We can deal with all of that. But it's a frustration."

"I see so many students say they want to give back to their communities, right?" Stainslaus State professor Michelle Bea Orion said. 

It's a problem affecting nursing programs at Stanislaus State University. Bea Orion says they're trying to increase class sizes.

"Every fall and every spring, we admit 40 students," Bea Orion said.  "For nursing students, it's not from a lack of desire, I think from the school's point of view, it's more the lack of faculty and the lack of clinical sites."

The university is attempting to keep that workforce right here in Stanislaus County. 

"We're actually making sure that 50% of those that we take of the applicants come from this area, because we know if they come from this area, they're more apt to stay and support this area," Bea Orion said. 

But without funding, faculty, and fair working conditions, nurses say this cycle won't break.

"Every single thing we're demanding, everyone, is related to patient safety," Carson said. "We'll always fight for our patients and our communities."