30 percent of nurses caring for patients are employed by SVH

Worcester, MA – June 18, 2021 – Saint Vincent Hospital is thankful and proud of the 200 dedicated nurses who have made the decision to cross the picket line to care for patients. Together, they represent a full 30 percent of the hospital’s nurses who are providing safe, high-quality care at Saint Vincent.

The local Massachusetts Nurses Association bargaining committee recently conveyed to members the intention to unnecessarily prolong the strike until at least September. This led to an increase of nurses reaching out to their supervisors to express their intent to cross the picket line. The hospital’s recruitment team also continues to interview and hire qualified applicants for permanent replacement as well as other nursing roles. Saint Vincent Hospital expects the number of returning and newly hired nurses to continue to steadily increase.

“It is nice to see so many familiar faces around the hospital again and to meet nurses who recently joined our team,” said Saint Vincent Hospital CEO, Carolyn Jackson. “It is because of their dedication that our community has continued to seek care at Saint Vincent despite the strike. I am deeply inspired by and thankful for each of our nurses who have crossed.”

These nurses, along with the temporary replacement nurses, have consistently delivered excellent patient safety and quality care since the beginning of the strike. The facts support that before the strike, Saint Vincent Hospital also delivered safe, high-quality care, and staffed its nurses more generously for patient care than most similar hospitals in Massachusetts. Any comments to the contrary are not based in fact and are merely MNA rhetoric in a misguided attempt to harm Saint Vincent Hospital.

In fact, as other MNA bargaining committees have recently come to agreement with other Massachusetts hospitals, many of whom have less generous staffing than Saint Vincent Hospital, our nurses are fed up with being held hostage from their workplace by their own local MNA bargaining committee. More and more nurses are recognizing this, and they are choosing to come back to work in our supportive and busy hospital.