Nurses at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup to picket May 27 over staffing, racial justice concerns
Nurses at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup say they feel undervalued within the MultiCare health system despite the hospital’s prominence in the region.
The 1,039 nurses represented by the Washington State Nurses Association will be holding a picket May 27 outside the hospital to inform the public about MultiCare’s disrespect towards nurses at the bargaining table.
The picket will be held outside the hospital from 7-9 a.m. and 3-5:30 p.m., with a rally at 5 p.m.
Nurses say contract proposals from hospital management would worsen staffing at the hospital, which has the fourth busiest emergency department in the nation.
During the last contract settled in 2023, Good Samaritan nurses fought hard for additional staffing resources in the contract, including charge nurses and flex nurses free of patient assignment, as well as break relief nurses. In this round of negotiations, MultiCare proposes to eliminate that language, asking nurses to trust that they will not get rid of them in the future.
Nurses are also outraged over management’s use of the term “colored nurses” in an April 23 agenda for a conference committee — where union nurses and management discuss issues. The agenda included the following item: “Racial bias: Travis believes there is discrimination for colored nurses as it relates to discipline.”
The use of the term “colored nurses” is associated with segregation and racism.
The nurses have proposed common-sense measures that would improve patient care and retain and recruit nurses.
A staffing plan based on nurse-to-patient ratios
Nurses are asking that the state-submitted staffing plan not assign more patients per nurse then evidence-based ratios, that take into consideration staffing standards, patient acuity, and departmental needs.
While improvements have been made to staffing plans, nurses say management finds ways of circumventing them, and nurses are left with unsafe patient loads.
MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital includes ratios in the nurses' contract, and MultiCare is looking at expanding into Oregon, where it will need to comply with state law on nurse-to-patient ratios. So, including ratios in the Good Sam contract is not uncharted territory.
Addressing issues of discrimination together
The April incident is one example of why nurses want the hospital and union to work together to address issues of discrimination and cultural responsiveness.
Nurses propose creating a Respect Committee, to include three hospital management employees, three WSNA nurses, and the WSNA nurse representative. Nurses would be able to bring forward concerns about discrimination without fear of discipline, and the committee would investigate reports and meet at least quarterly, with additional meetings as needed.
The nurses want the hospital to fund an independent anti-discrimination professional — jointly selected by both parties and unaffiliated with either WSNA or MultiCare — to help guide the committee’s work. The consultant would provide training, assist in creating the committee’s charter, and remain available for at least a year to facilitate future meetings.
Charge nurses without administrative duties
Currently, MultiCare assigns non-union clinical assistant nurse managers who have full-time administrative duties to work as charge nurses. Nurses are upset MultiCare puts their managers in the impossible role of performing two jobs at once – potentially compromising their nurse license and their patients’ livelihood.
WSNA has collected more than 50 examples of clinical assistant nurse managers not able to fulfill their role as a charge nurse. Examples include managers in the charge role being off the floor for “multiple hours during the [charge nurse] shift,” “decreasing the amount of people available to care for our patients,” and being so out of date on bedside care they “cannot place an IV or draw blood appropriately.”
Nurses are the frontline of patient care and should be given more respect.