Health care workers across the state are grappling with a mix of low pay and poor working conditions that is driving colleagues away from the workforce, say advocates who insist long-term solutions are needed to ease the problem.
Staffing shortages and financial difficulties at hospitals are not new, but recent activities such as informational picketing by labor unions are intended to put a new spotlight on the challenges for front-line health care workers while contracts are under negotiation at some hospitals.
“There is a pattern,” said Jesse Martin, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union 1199 New England, which represents about 2,500 Care New England Health System employees. “If we are all doing these activities at different institutions across the state, something is wrong, something is broken.”
SEIU 1199NE recently held informational picketing at two Care New England hospitals, Women & Infants Hospital and Butler Hospital, urging the administration to address staffing shortages the union says are at risky levels.
“It’s scary and stressful and a little demoralizing,” said Ashley Ouellette, a registered nurse at Butler Hospital who walked the picket line on Nov. 10. Ouellette, who has worked at Butler for six years, said the shortage is creating dangers for workers and patients.
Members of the union say they want to be involved in conversations around the spending of the millions of federal dollars allocated to hospitals through the American Rescue Plan Act. So far, Ouellette said, attempts at an “open dialogue” have gone nowhere. Care New England did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lynn Blais, a registered nurse and president of United Nurses and Allied Professionals, said she shares the frustration over ARPA spending.
UNAP locals represent employees at hospitals owned by CNE, Lifespan Corp. and for-profit Prospect CharterCARE LLC, which is set to be acquired by Atlanta-based nonprofit The Centurion Foundation. The deal was announced Nov. 22.
UNAP has been negotiating new contracts at Prospect CharterCARE-owned Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Roger Williams Medical Center and Prospect CharterCARE Home Health and Hospice LLC.
UNAP has organized informational picket lines at Fatima to demand a better contract at the three CharterCARE locations.
Before the Centurion deal was announced, CharterCARE spokesperson Otis Brown said there have been “productive negotiating sessions to date, we have more scheduled, and we look forward to reaching an agreement that is fair to union members, as well as our hospitals.”
Blais said the proposed acquisition by Centurion shouldn’t change contract talks, adding that the union is still hopeful a labor agreement will be reached soon. But issues highlighted by the picketing are not confined to hospitals; they span the entire system and affect every health care profession, industry observers say.
Some short-term solutions might help address the immediate urgency of short staffing, including investments in medical equipment and higher wages for workers. But long-term, sustainable solutions are needed, said Robert Hackey, a professor of health policy and management at Providence College.
“We need to help the nursing profession in particular recruit and retain people in ways that really minimize the risk of burnout,” Hackey said. This includes strengthening the pipeline by investing in educational programs and recruiting faculty, he said, but also improving working conditions.
“The frustrating thing is that we continue to talk about the problem as a crisis but really it’s a chronic problem for the health care system,” Hackey said.
