Providence-Everett prepares for nurses’ strike

Providence-Everett nurses say they are tired, fed up, and want a better contract. That’s why they voted to strike two weeks ago.

As noted last week, more than 600 nurses quit working at the Everett hospital over the last 18 months, making the workload even more difficult for the nurses who have stayed.

“No. 1 (is) patient safety. So we are working together with Providence to get a contract that prioritizes patient safety over everything,” Labor and Delivery Nurse Kristen Crowder told KIRO Newsradio.

“We want patients to come to the hospital to get the care they need, get the time that they need with their nurses so that they can have education, how to learn blood checks, or monitoring blood pressure, whatever needs to happen,” Crowder explained.

Background on nurses vote: 97% of Providence Everett nurses vote to approve strike

As of Friday, Providence nurses and the hospital were hopeful to come to an agreement, but did not.

“It ultimately came down to staffing and wanting our nurses to have some sort of reassurance that they’re not going to be having these really heavy loads on a daily basis,” Crowder said. “And they were not willing to do that.”

The nurses plan to walk off the job on Nov. 14-19.

Nurses said they have been short-staffed since 2018 and the pandemic exacerbated the situation.

“We were short-staffed before, and then the pandemic happened,” Crowder said. “The mental and physical demands that were required during that time really played a very large role in how nurses were able to care for patients. Now, physically and mentally, people are far more exhausted.”

Crowder said in order to create a better work environment for nurses, the hospital needs to be at 90% staffing. Now, she said the hospital is anywhere between 50-80%.

“There’s a nursing shortage, for sure. But other area hospitals do not have the severity of staffing problems that Providence does,” Crowder explained. “Those other area hospitals are not nearly as short as we are on a regular basis, their staffing levels are not as dangerous as Providence. So we want them to recognize that and see what they can do to ensure to our nurses, that they are making every effort to ensure that we have nurses at the bedside to care for those patients.”

“Yes, there is the short staffing,” Christy Carrington, the chief executive of North Puget Sound Providence Everett, acknowledged.

“Compensation is a component of it, but I think really at the heart of that is really trying to improve the work environment,” Carrington continued. “We really need to be able to alleviate those stressors that really sit on the plates of our nurses, which have just become more and more compounded over the last several years.”

Now with the strike less than a week away, Providence-Everett Hospital has been working behind the scenes to get ready for the walkout.

‘We’re begging for help’: Nurses at Providence in Everett close to striking

“Every nursing character or patient care department that has a nurse has a potential of being impacted by this or will be impacted by this,” Carrington added. “And I can tell you that we are bringing in some very highly skilled nurses to care for our patients.”

Carrington said the community can be assured of safe care that will be continued during the duration of the strike.

“So our goal is to make sure that we keep our services open, and that we’re ready to care for our community,” she said. “And right now, that’s where our focus is. As a nurse, I think our priority right now has to focus on ensuring that we can continue to meet the health needs of our community.”

Crowder doesn’t believe issues will be resolved before the walkout.

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“During situations like this, they will not come to the bargaining table at any time until the strike is completed. So we will not have any sort of communication about bargaining most likely until Monday.”

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