The Progressive: RWJ Nurses Still on Strike
‘New Jersey Nurses Are on Strike for Better Staffing’
From The Progressive magazine:
New Jersey Nurses Are on Strike for Better Staffing
After walking out in August, nurses in New Brunswick refuse to return until their hospital starts putting patients before profit.
Aaron Habrack works as a nurse in the medical intensive care unit (MICU), which serves some of the sickest patients at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. The job is stressful, but rewarding, he says. What makes it frustrating—and potentially life-threatening to patients—is that he often finds himself responsible for more patients than he believes is safe.
In the MICU, he says, there should be no more than two patients per nurse, though the ratio might be one-to-one with some patients—such as those on ventilators or dialysis—or even two nurses to a patient. This may be more costly, but according to Habrack, keeping these ratios low is best for the health and safety of the hospital’s patients.
Habrack is one of 1,700 nurses on strike at the New Brunswick hospital, which is one of New Jersey’s primary trauma facilities and the flagship its largest hospital and health care company, RWJBarnabas Health. The nurses, who are represented by the United Steelworkers union, have been on strike for more than eighty days. Their primary demand is enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios that will protect both nurses and patients.
Continue reading at The Progressive.