Nurses expressed anger and feelings of impotence: ‘I hate the fact we don’t take care of these patients. When they come in, it is crisis intervention. You stick a Band-Aid on them and you send them right back out the door.’ They lamented the fact that their work had become oriented towards ‘task nursing:’ ‘Ever seen cattle going through the line? ... That’s what it’s like.’ They felt they were not able to focus on patients’ needs. The high number of patients assigned to each nurse was a prominent topic of discussion, as were the effects on their work and the care that patients received. One effect of these low nurse-to-patient ratios was lack of time for one-on-one interactions: ‘We don’t have time to talk to them. And that’s the cornerstone of what we do.’ Nurses also spoke of the lack of basic supplies for medical needs of their patients, such as diabetic supplies, automated external defibrillators and hoppers to clean bedpans.