UT nursing college students mirror on trade amid potential nurse strike at Ascension Seton Medical Middle

Ninety-eight p.c of nurses at Ascension Seton Medical Middle Austin voted on Could 31 and June 1 to go on strike.

The 900 registered nurses at Ascension Seton are represented by the union, The Nationwide Nurse Organizing Committee/Nationwide Nurses United. The union introduced the authorization of a one-day strike in a press launch on June 1. A date for the potential strike has not been set, however the union will present a discover not less than 10 days earlier than the date. The strike could be the most important nurses’ strike in Texas historical past, in accordance with the press launch.

In line with the press launch, “ASMCA administration’s unacceptable and delayed responses to nurses’ contract proposals” to enhance nurse recruitment, retention and staffing ranges fueled the potential strike. Nationwide Nurses United additionally claimed ASMCA’s possession by Ascension — which is among the largest nonprofit well being methods within the nation — means they’ve the monetary assets to handle the short-staffing concern.

“We simply want extra well being care employees, particularly nurses, however we’re not getting paid sufficient,” nursing junior Kate Crawford stated. “We’re not being incentivized sufficient and we’re really having nurses stop their careers and go do different issues.”

Crawford stated she was not shocked by the announcement of a potential strike, as she feels there has all the time been a scarcity of medical employees, particularly in giant cities. She stated she wished extra folks would take into account going into nursing to fight this development. Whereas Crawford stated she hopes to see extra folks turning into nurses, she stated she additionally understands not everybody can or must be a nurse.

“You want any person who’s undoubtedly prepared to tackle the workload,” Crawford stated. “You’re not simply giving folks drugs on a regular basis. You’re going to be bathing them or strolling them. It may be very mundane typically, but it surely takes any person with a giant coronary heart who’s compassionate, educated and simply keen about nursing total.”

Extra universities, together with Baylor, have began providing accelerated nursing packages. The accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Baylor states they put together folks for a nursing profession in a single 12 months with no prior nursing training or expertise required. Given the shorter coaching time, nursing sophomore Barabara Cardoza stated this isn’t the correct option to deal with the scarcity.

“There are such a lot of tremendous accelerated nurse packages, I really feel like (it’s) unsafe that it’s an accelerated program,” Cardoza stated. “It simply throws you out within the wind. I feel that’s harmful, and I don’t actually agree with that, however that’s how dangerous the difficulty is.”

As for affected person care persevering with through the potential someday strike, nurses from the union defined that the strike is to enhance affected person care in the long term and isn’t an act of negligence.

“I do know that there’s a concern of ‘Will sufferers nonetheless be supplied with care?’” nursing sophomore Trinity Schroeder stated. “However I feel long run the objective is to boost consciousness that nurses must be handled higher and if they’re then long run affected person care will enhance from the strike.”