Nurses from Saint Agnes Ascension Hospital are once again appealing to leaders of the Catholic Church to help them come to an agreement with management for safer conditions and higher wages.
Staff rallied in front of the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore for the second year in a row where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is holding their annual meeting.
The nurses, who unionized at the end of 2023, are going on nearly two years of negotiations with management.
“We’re trying to see if the bishops can pressurize them from outside,” said Gideon Eziama, a nurse at St. Agnes.
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.”
St. Agnes maintains it is keeping with safe standards.
“We continue to take proactive measures to attract and retain talented associates, reflecting our unwavering commitment to supporting our caregivers and ensuring the delivery of safe, exceptional care. Our staffing and patient care practices are grounded in evidence-based approaches and flexible staffing models designed to meet the evolving needs of our patients. No nurse is ever assigned a patient for whom they do not have the skills to provide safe care,” said a St. Agnes spokesperson.
The nurses went on strike this summer to advocate for their demands.
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.
