More than 3,000 nurses from six hospitals in Oregon were on the picket lines for a second day on Wednesday. They carried signs that said “Patients over profits” and “We’re out to make sure it’s safe in there” as they continued to demand better staffing levels and fair pay.
Strikes are going on at six Providence hospitals across the state, from the Medford Medical Center in the south to the St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland in the north.
Organizers say it’s the biggest nurses’ strike in the history of the state. Providence, on the other hand, said that no patients’ health is in danger because it has hired contract workers to fill the gap briefly.
“We have not been able to get Providence to come to a fair contract,” said Scott Palmer, chief of staff for the Oregon Nurses Association. Nurses have been in talks since December.
Palmer said that the talks are mostly about “recruitment and retention issues,” which include pay, benefits, and making sure there are enough staffing standards.
Jennifer Gentry, who is the chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division, said that the company hired backup workers to make sure that patient care doesn’t get worse. A company spokesman, Gary Walker, said that the strike has not had any effect on their assets. On Tuesday, they helped about 800 people in their emergency rooms, and no planned treatments have been pushed back.
Palmer said that the nurses on strike want people to get the care they need and for the workers to be helped.
The American Nurses Association and the nurses want people to know that if they are sick, they should not wait to get medical care. Palmer told The Associated Press. “People who need it should go to the hospital right away.” No doubt, our nurses would rather be giving that care, but Providence made us do it instead, and now we’re on the picket line speaking up for those patients.
Palmer said that their main requests are for staffing and wages that are competitive. He said that when there aren’t enough staff, nurses can’t take lunch, it takes longer to answer patient calls, and it’s hard to find time to go to the bathroom.
Palmer said that the constant worry is making nurses more burned out than ever before.
“We know that nurses are leaving the field in large numbers, and it hurts their morale that they can’t give patients the care they deserve,” he said. “Our understanding is that unsafe staffing levels are the main reason for this.”
Gentry, a nursing officer for Providence, said that Oregon has a law called “safe staffing,” and the company follows the law’s hiring rules.
Palmer said that the nurses want Providence to write those staffing levels into the contracts. However, Gentry said that they were willing to just say that they’ll follow the law in the contract, in case the law changes.
The strike is set to last until Thursday.
