On Thursday morning, nurses at St. Agnes Ascension Hospital will not report to work, instead they will be picketing outside demanding safer practices for staff and patients.
The strike will run from 7 a.m. Thursday to 7 a.m. Friday and is the culmination of 18 months of failed negotiations between the nurses’ union, National Nurses United (NNU), and management at the hospital.
The two parties have been at loggerheads for 18 months trying to hammer out a bargaining agreement.
The nurses are demanding better nurse-to-patient ratios, an end to the practice of assigning nurses to wards where they do not have expertise, and a stoppage to patient assignments to charge nurses so they can better resource nurses they are managing.
“We are seeing experienced nurses leave our hospital and the nursing profession altogether due to the working conditions at Saint Agnes,” said Robin Buckner, a registered nurse on the vascular access team. “We need to stop the exodus of nurses by improving nurse staffing. When we have too many patients to care for, patient outcomes suffer. It means patients are waiting for pain medications, waiting for a nurse to answer their call light, or for assistance to get out of bed. This is why we are fighting for safe nurse-to-patient ratios in our contracts.”
The hospital contracted with a staffing agency to fill positions during the strike.
“This [strike] not only undermines the progress of negotiations between Saint Agnes and NNU, but also creates unnecessary hardship for our associates and their families, as well as concern for our patients and their loved ones,” a statement from management said. “Saint Agnes would prefer not to utilize these extended contracted services. However, we must make every provision to ensure the health and safety of our patients, families, providers and associates during NNU’s short-term strike.”
The nurses say they are chronically understaffed and have a retention problem that is partly due to poor pay.
“In ICU, we usually do one nurse for every two patients,” Melissa LaRue, an ICU nurse at St. Agnes said. “St. Agnes has been cutting that and at times we've had to take care of three patients instead of two. We feel like we're being put in unsafe situations for our patients.”
Ascension hospitals all over the nation have been criticized for their staffing model. In 2022, The New York Times conducted an investigation that found the company created its own staffing crisis before COVID put pressure on the healthcare system, stating that many “cut staff to skeletal levels” that compromised patient safety.
