Austin hospital employees planning largest nurses strike in Texas history, union says

Nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin plan to strike, leaving their work at the hospital for a day, over claims of unsafe staffing levels and mismanagement of resources by hospital administrators.

Members of the nurses' union — the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United — authorized the strike with overwhelming support. If the strike comes to pass, it will be the largest nurses strike in Texas history, according to a news release from the union.

Matthew Clark, a nurse who has worked at the hospital for eight years, said the strike is meant to benefit patients by ensuring there are enough nurses to provide adequate care. He said staffing has been a pervasive concern at the hospital across all departments and accused the hospital's owner, Ascension, of deliberately maintaining low staffing levels to cut costs.

"The staffing issues within the hospital are pretty rampant. I quite frankly don't know of a single unit that isn't impacted by short staffing conditions," Clark said. "We know our patients deserve better and we know Ascension has the resources necessary to be able to provide better care for our patients."

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Ascension, which owns Seton Medical Center Austin, is a non-profit, Catholic health system, according to its website. Ascension is one of the largest hospital systems in the country, operating more than 2,600 care facilities, including 139 hospitals in 19 states.

Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, located in North Austin on the 1200 block of 38th Street, operates as a full-service hospital with 24/7 emergency capabilities, according to its website. The hospital specializes in heart and vascular health, maternity services and lung and esophageal cancers. It also contains a level 1 stroke center and a level IV trauma center.

When is the strike?

Major details of the proposed strike, including day, location and time, have yet to be decided, Clark said. The strike would only last one day, and the union plans to provide a 10-day notice to Ascension in an effort to allow the health system to make arrangements to avoid a lapse in patient care.

Clark suggested Ascension could cancel elective procedures, divert patients to other facilities or rely on temporary staff to fill in during a strike. However, he said, a strike is not imminent, and a deal could be reached by Ascension administrators and the union to prevent one.

How will a strike affect patients?

Clark was adamant that nurses leaving their post for a day was not an act of negligence toward patient care, but is necessary to improving care long-term.

"We are not neglecting patient care by going out on strike," Clark said. "The whole purpose of us pursuing this is so that we can improve patient care within the hospital."

Ascension did not immediately answer questions regarding the strike. In an emailed statement, the health system touted its commitment to patient care and wrote it is continuing negotiations with the nurses' union.

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What does the union want?

Clark said there are three main priorities of the strike: improving recruitment and retention efforts at the hospital; creating enforceable safe-staffing levels, standards and procedures; and forming a professional practice committee that will work with administrators to address staff complaints.

Those changes, he said, would improve the care patients receive by improving the quality of nurses' lives.

"We work 12-hour shifts, and quite frankly, those 12 hours in reality turn closer to 13, sometimes even 14 hours by the time the nurses are leaving their shifts," Clark said. "Many nurses who I've talked to will get out to the car after a shift and break down crying in the car from the physical exhaustion of the day, just to go home, get a few hours of sleep and come back and do the whole thing over again the next day."

Ascension claims in its statement that nursing shortages across the country are a reason for lowered staffing levels. It partners with more than 40 nursing schools and utilizes a scholarship program to incentivize students to enter the field.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas nurses plan strike over low staffing, recruitment