As nurses we have sacrificed ourselves and our families to care for our community during the pandemic. At times, we have been worked to utter exhaustion. This has left hardly anything to give our own families when they needed us the most. We did this because we love our patients and our community. We love the work we do at our hospital. During the pandemic, and before, we have gone the extra mile for Providence Kadlec. Now is the time for Providence Kadlec to go the extra mile for its nurses. Without our nurses this region would have been even more devastated.
We, the RNs at Providence Kadlec, support our WSNA bargaining team in their efforts to reach a contract that we deserve and that reflects the following priorities:
1. Sustainable and Stable Pay Practices - Compensation that recruits and retains skilled nurses will keep qualified nurses caring for our community.
2. Safe Staffing - Staffing levels that allows Kadlec nurses to provide excellent care for patients. Safe staffing means: having a dedicated charge that is not tied up with patient care duties, not having to repeatedly flex above matrix, and not being forced to care for patients nurses are not trained to care for by requiring nurses to float “in unit” when the hospital cannot transfer patients to the appropriate unit.
3. Supportive and Respectful Workplace - One that gives nurses the resources and support to provide excellent care for our patients and does not require nurses to “do our best” with substandard support.
4. Respect for Our Home Lives - Work schedules that do not excessively disrupt our family lives and grant nurses use of their hard-earned PTO in order to preserve and repair our battered mental and emotional health post pandemic
5. Allowing Nurses to Have a Unified Strong Voice – Our nurse would like to unify and empower membership in order to most effectively represent the bargaining unit through closed shop/union security.
We demand Providence executives and Kadlec management work with our team in our effort to secure much-needed enhancements to the current contract and to reach agreement in a timely manner. This will benefit our hospital as much as it will benefit the community we serve.
