Nurses at Via Christi St. Joseph, St. Francis set date for one-day strike

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Registered nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph will join those at Ascension Seton Medical in Austin, Texas, in a one-day strike on Tuesday, June 27, the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) announced on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the nurses union voted overwhelmingly to authorize one-day strikes. At that time, Ascension Via Christi released a statement saying, “Should we receive an official strike notification, we have a comprehensive contingency plan in place to ensure our patients experience no disruption in care or service.”

Thursday’s notice gives the hospital time to prepare alternative plans to be made for patient care.

The NNOC/NNU is demanding Ascension Via Christi address safe staffing protections and nurse recruitment and retention.

“Union nurses across Ascension stand united for our patients and against management’s profiteering,” Lisa Watson, a registered nurse in the medical intensive care unit at Ascension via Christi St. Francis Hospital. “It’s disrespectful to be asked to take care of more patients with fewer resources. These conditions have everything to do with management’s decision-making and nothing to do with the excuse of the so-called ‘nursing shortage’ that’s actually a staffing crisis they created.”

The nurses union said chronic short-staffing has made it challenging for nurses to provide the highest quality of care to their patients because it drastically limits how much time a nurse can spend on each patient. The union also said that short-staffing “creates a revolving door of nursing staff, who suffer moral injury and distress because they can’t provide the care they know results in the best patient outcomes.”

“Ascension nurses are fighting for our patients and the sustainability of our profession,” said Marvin Ruckle, a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph hospital. “Our commitment to winning strong contracts is unbreakable, like our bond to our patients. Executives can’t get away with empty promises while rejecting our commonsense solutions to improve staffing and patient care. Just as the nurse-patient relationship is important for healing, strong contracts are the best way for us to solve our staffing crisis for the sake of our patients’ health and well-being.”

NNOC/NNU represents 900 nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin, 650 nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and 300 nurses at Ascension via Christi St. Joseph.