and Minnesota this past week organized the largest strike of private
sector nurses and U. S history, with 15,000 nurses walking off the
job for three days, And while the pandemic pushed many nurses to
the brink, some say the burnout was years in the making. Joining
us now is Kelly honest, one of the nurses from the Minnesota strike,
and Jean Ross, the president of National Nurses United. It's good
to have you both with us.
And Kelly. You were out on the picket line with your fellow Minnesota
nurses this past week. What were you all demanding from? Hospital
management?
Um, well, the focus of our contract campaign has largely been around
the staffing that has changed in the last even three pandemic. The
last few years, um in hospitals around the state of Minnesota and
truly around the country. Um, that has been the largest part of the
focus of our strike. Also issues like paid family leave.
Workplace violence and protections around that and also compensation
for nurses.
So Kelly. I understand that you've worked at the same hospital for
some 14 years now, including a stint in the ICU during the peak of
Covid. What choices? Do you think the hospital made that contributed
to this tipping point where nurses feel no other option but to hit
the picket line even before Covid showed up in America in Minnesota.
Um
Our hospital started implementing this process They refer to as benchmarking
where they would compare their staffing levels to like hospitals
around the country and then work to match the staffing levels and
most cases, they dropped the staffing levels but doing the same amount
of work, taking care of the same amount of patients with the same
Or even higher levels of acuity.
Then, when the pandemic showed up, they staffed us up. We were more
prepared to respond to critical patients and their ever changing
levels of sickness. Um and we were able to take breaks and
go drink water and eat and rest and kind of do those things that
we could kind of refuel and get back into the room, taking care of
our patients.
As folded kind of
Became part of the norm both in the outside world and inside the
hospital. Um they started reverting back to these lower benchmark
levels of staffing, and so we went back to doing more work with fewer
resources, um, that we've seen before. So Jean, what are the possible
solutions to this nursing shortage and what's preventing hospitals
from pursuing?
The solutions
are very simple, uh, way to fix this is to listen to the nurses to
respect them enough to respect their judgment. You need to pay people.
For their worth, and I think you saw worth clearly during the pandemic.
You need to pay the nurses enough that they will stay working even
during a pandemic and will attract other nurses into it, because
it's a wonderful career. The kinds of things that Kelly mentioned
that helped us during the pandemic or things that the employer did
not easily give us. We had to fight.
We had to go to the We had to go to the governor. We had to go to
the president. We had to go to the CDC and OSHA. So everything we've
got we've had to fight for and we know what nurses need in order
to keep our patients safe. The employer needs to listen to us needs
to acquiesce to our needs for good staffing and for adequate compensation.
Jamie reached out to some of the hospitals to get their response
to this and a statement that we got from one of the hospital systems.
They essentially said that they were deeply disappointed by the
Nurses, unions choice to strike before exhausting all efforts to
reach an agreement. What do you say to people who who might agree
with the points that you make, But he would also say that
By nurses striking that that really put patients at risk. What's
your reaction to that If you don't stand up for what you need for
yourself as a nurse, and for patients to keep them safe, that's putting
patients at risk When you do nothing, you're part of the problem.
It's very, very hard for nurses to walk out on leave their patients.
We don't know what kind of care they're getting.
Um, and they certainly don't know our patients. We are the best people
to provide that care. So when when employers say, you know they're
disappointed. Well, you know, we have a lot more than disappointment
going against them, too. We are totally disgusted. Quite frankly,
they're making money hand over fist despite what they say.
And quite frankly, if you can't afford to pay your people to bring
them in and keep them, maybe you should be looking at a different
line of business.
Jean Ross and Kelly. Honest, Thanks so much for being with us.