Tensions are heightened at Ascension hospitals across Texas and Kansas as a nursing strike looms following failed negotiations between the facilities’ management and the nurses’ union.
Initially, nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin in Texas, Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph hospitals, both in Wichita, Kansas, were set to participate in a planned one-day strike in protest of contract disputes pertaining to safe staffing protections and the recruitment and retention of nurses. However, the hospitals’ contingency plans to keep staffed during the strike will lock out nurses who participate in it for an additional three days—a move that some nurses are describing as a “despicable” attempt to intimidate them.
A press release from members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), condemned the hospitals’ actions, suggesting that this move is yet another failure on management’s part to address issues related to patient safety.
“Nurses planned a one-day strike because, ultimately, patient care is our top priority,” Lindsay Spinney, a registered nurse at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin’s neonatal intensive care unit, said in the release. “Management would rather once again spend money to solve a problem they’ve created and punish us for speaking up in the process.”
To address the stoppage event and keep their facilities staffed during the strike, Ascension contracted with a staffing agency that specializes in such scenarios. In an update on their contingency plans, Ascension noted that they are “contractually required to commit to a minimum of four days of work for any registered nursing staff replaced, starting from the first day of a strike,” regardless of the planned strike's duration.
Despite this, members of the union showed no signs of backing down and fired back at Ascension, calling their extended lockout “a deliberate ploy to intimidate nurses from speaking out and demanding action on the conditions they decided to strike over.”
The strike is set to begin June 27 and is poised to be the largest nurse strike in Texas history.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.