Nurses in Oregon take to the picket lines to demand better staffing, higher pay
More than 3,000 nurses at six Oregon hospitals spent a second day on the picket lines Wednesday holding signs that read “Patients over profits” and “We want to make sure it’s safe there” as they continued to demand fair wages and better health care . staff levels.
Nurses are striking at six Providence medical facilities across the state – from St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland in the north to Medford Medical Center in the south.
Organizers say it is the largest nurses’ strike in the state’s history, while Providence emphasized that no patient’s health is at risk as it has hired contract workers to temporarily fill the void.
Scott Palmer, chief of staff for the Oregon Nurses Association, said nurses have been in negotiations since December but have “failed to get Providence to agree to a fair contract.”
She said the focus of the negotiations is on “recruitment and retention issues,” including wages, benefits and adequate staffing standards.
Jennifer Gentry, chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division, said the organization has contracted with a company to provide replacement staff to ensure patient care does not suffer. Gary Walker, a spokesperson for the company, said the strike had no impact on their facilities. They treated about 800 people in their emergency department on Tuesday and no elective surgeries have been postponed.
Palmer said the striking nurses want people to get the care they need, but they also want healthcare providers to be supported.
“It’s very important that people in the nursing community and in the American Nurses Association know that if you are sick, you should not delay medical care,” Palmer told The Associated Press. “Patients should seek immediate hospital care if they need it. Clearly, our nurses would rather be the ones providing that care, but Providence forced our hand and instead we ended up on the picket line advocating for those patients.
Staffing and competitive wages are the focus of their demands, Palmer said. When staffing levels are low, nurses can’t eat lunch, there are delays in answering patient calls and it’s even difficult to find time to go to the bathroom, he said.
That constant stress is causing record levels of burnout among nurses, Palmer said.
“We know that nurses are choosing to leave the profession en masse and there is a moral injury that nurses experience when they are unable to provide the quality care that patients deserve, because at least in Oregon, unsafe staffing is the number one reason for that is.” he said.
Providence nurse Gentry said Oregon has passed a “safe staffing” law and the company is following the law’s staffing mandates.
Palmer said the nurses want Providence to spell out those staffing levels in the contracts, but Gentry said they offered to include in the contract that they will follow the law, rather than including specific numbers in case the law changes.
The strike will last until Thursday.
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This story has been corrected to reflect Jennifer Gentry’s correct title. She is the chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division.