WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Registered nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester are planning to protest what they called deteriorating working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Nurses are expected to gather on the sidewalk outside of the Summer Street entrance to the hospital from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association said that St. Vincent Hospital nurses have been struggling to care for patients over the past months as they reportedly deal with a lack of safe staffing, inadequate personal protective equipment, and furloughs.
Nurses have filed more than 360 reports to management citing staffing and patient care conditions that they believed threatened the safety of their patients, the union said.
Over the last eight months, more than 100 nurses have reportedly left the facility for other hospitals with better conditions, pay and benefits.
“Our nurses have been sacrificing for our patients, family and communities throughout this pandemic,” said Dominique Muldoon, a nurse who worked on the COVID floor during the first surge and serves as co-chair of the nurses local bargaining unit. “Nurses have moved out of their homes or isolated from loved ones. Our members have been exposed or infected with this virus in our efforts to provide care to these very sick patients. Our members have born witness to unbearable suffering and been the only ones with patients, serving as the conduit of all communication with families as they watched their loved ones die. For nurses, this is our duty and our obligation, and all that we ask is to be treated with respect and to be given the resources to perform this noble work.”
The union added that Tenant Healthcare has been focusing on cutting corners at St. Vincent Hospital and recouping revenue to boost their bottom line.
A spokesperson for the hospital said that the facility will remain fully operational during the informational picket.
“We are surprised and disappointed that the MNA is holding this public action during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially with cases increasing in our area to levels that we have not seen since May,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are in contract negotiations, and we strongly object to their tactic of disseminating inflammatory and misleading rhetoric to try to advance their position in those discussions. Our staffing guidelines are appropriate, and more generous than most other hospitals in the state. We have appropriate personal protective equipment, and our COVID-19 response plan remains in place.”
“We value all of our employees, and a picket does not change this. In fact, our current proposal to the union, one of the best in ten years, includes a substantial wage increase and revised wage scale for nurses,” the statement continued. “We want to get an agreement finalized so we can implement these as soon as possible. We will continue to negotiate in good faith in hopes of reaching a successful resolution.”
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