“We’re putting out fires just constantly, and we all go home feeling like we didn’t take care of our patients today. We kept them alive, but we didn’t take care of them. That doesn’t feel good,” nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital said as they look to form a union to help address issues it faces.
Nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital, 700 S Brooks St., are currently working to form a union under the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Wisconsin. There have been other attempts in the past, with the most recent during COVID-19, which was ultimately stopped due to the pandemic, but is now set to vote to officially be represented under SEIU. The hospital is owned by St. Louis-based SSM Health.
The most recent effort comes as issues in the past have continued to worsen with problems like poor staff retention, lack of seniority in staff, poor compensation, increased pressure to do more with less, lack of ability to fully care for patients, a “productivity grid” that pushes for billing over care, cut to incentive pay, and mandatory overtime…