About 15,000 union nurses at 15 hospitals across seven different health systems in Minnesota have walked off the job, protesting understaffing and overwork in what’s believed to be the biggest strike of private-sector nurses in U.S. history.
The Minnesota Nurses Association strike, slated to last three days, began at 7 a.m. on Sept. 12. The group’s membership voted last month to authorize a strike.
Nurses in the Minneapolis and Duluth areas are complaining about low pay, a dearth of resources, and the inability to care for patients properly, such as running wards without lead nurses, and poor shift-scheduling practices.
“I can’t give my patients the care they deserve,” said Chris Rubesch, the vice president of the Minnesota Nurses Association and a nurse at Essentia Health in Duluth, according to The Washington Post. “Call lights go unanswered. Patients should only be waiting for a few seconds or minutes if they’ve soiled themselves or their oxygen came unplugged or they need to go to the bathroom, but that can take 10 minutes or more. Those are things that can’t wait.”…