Nurses and community picket for nurse and patient safety at St. Joe’s Tacoma

Hundreds of nurses, patients and community leaders gathered outside St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma On Nov. 3 to demand the hospital improve conditions so nurses can provide safe, high-quality care to every patient. Nurses and supporters carried signs and rallied along J Street in front of the hospital to demand that CommonSpirit invest its profits in nurses and quality patient care.

Nurses represented by Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) have held 10 bargaining sessions over two months, but management refuses to invest in nurses and patient care. Nurses have asked the hospital to commit to safe staffing levels, fair compensation to retain qualified nurses, and common-sense measures to ensure nurses’ safety and dignity on the job.

“Every nurse at St. Joe’s wants to provide the best care for our patients,” said Yunna Flenord, an RN in St. Joe’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), “But we’re stretched so thin that often we’re struggling to provide just basic care. If you get sick, you deserve to have a nurse who can answer your questions and provide compassionate care. Sadly, that’s just not the case with staffing the way it is today.”

Nurses at St. Joe’s earn the lowest pay of any major hospital in the Tacoma area, including a huge 13.8% gap between St. Joe’s and Multicare Auburn. Prior to the pandemic, St. Joe’s already had turnover rates far above national averages. With the lowest pay in the region, chronic understaffing, and safety concerns, St. Joe’s nurses are leaving their jobs at a high rate.

“I’ve said too many goodbyes to nurses who made the hard decision to leave for jobs where they were treated fairly,” said Dakota Eckman, a first-year nurse in St. Joe’s nurse residency program. “I don’t understand why a company that made more than $5 billion in profit in the last year won’t pay enough to keep good nurses who want to work here.”

In addition to staffing and pay, nurses at St. Joe’s say the hospital’s inaction puts them in danger. Nurses have been seriously injured by patients. Nurses have also been followed and harassed when coming and going from their cars, and been victims of car break-ins.

“We’re not asking for the moon,” said Emily D’Anna, a Labor & Delivery nurse at St. Joe’s. “We just want a guarantee that there will be security in place to keep us safe from the time we pull into the parking lot until we get back on the road home. Is that really too much to ask?”