Nurses at Austin hospital announce strike date, plan to leave their post for a day
Hundreds of nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin plan to strike June 27 over claims of a prolonged staffing crisis and dismissive conduct by hospital administrators during monthslong contract negotiations.
The nurses union, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United, announced the strike Thursday, weeks after members of the union voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The union has said it will be the largest nurses strike in Texas history.
The American-Statesman reported this month that the strike is expected to last one day and bring awareness to what nurses at the hospital have said are unsafe working conditions. Matthew Clark, a nurse at Ascension Seton, told the Statesman in early June that every department at the hospital was experiencing severe staffing issues, which forced nurses to work long hours and jeopardized patient care.
Nurses union: Austin hospital employees planning largest nurses strike in Texas history
"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 this month. "We know our patients deserve better, and we know Ascension has the resources necessary to be able to provide better care for our patients."
Ascension, which owns Seton Medical Center Austin, is a nonprofit Catholic health system. It is one of the largest hospital systems in the country, operating more than 2,600 care facilities, including 139 hospitals in 19 states.
It's unclear how patients will be cared for during the strike. Clark said that nurses leaving their post for a day is not an act of negligence in patient care but is necessary to improve care long term.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin nurses planning June 27 strike over staffing, safety concerns
