Nurses return to work after 24-hour strike at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital
Raising public awareness of over-stretched patient care led to the union’s call for the strike
Above: Nurses on the picket line outside of St. Agnes Hospital yesterday. (NNOC/NNU)
Nurses returned to work this morning at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in southwest Baltimore after a 24-hour strike to highlight poor working conditions and over-stretched patient care.
“We are not asking for anything outrageous,” Nicki Horvat, a registered nurse, told WBAL. “We are asking for things that should be baseline in any patient care setting.”
According to the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, several issues remain unresolved after 18 months of negotiations.
They include a staffing shortage, retention concerns and what nurses call “unsafe floating assignments,” which is when nurses are sent to unfamiliar areas to work. More than 10% of the hospital’s nurses left between April and July because of poor working conditions, the union claims.
St. Agnes administrators said that nearly 70% of the nursing staff reported to their shifts yesterday.
One main sticking point in negotiations is the effort by the hospital, part of Ascension, the private Catholic healthcare system, to give nurses a choice on whether or not to join the union.
• FULL STORY: Nurses at Ascension St. Agnes plan one-day strike
“Patients Over Profit, Care over Corporate Greed,” says a picket sign.