Several hundred Rochester General Hospital nurses and supporters rallied today in support of safer staffing levels and a contract between the hospital and fledgling Rochester United Nurses and Allied Professionals.
Nurses at RGH voted to unionize in July 2022, amid worsening vacancy rates and pay equity, which they believe translates to poor patient care. Rochester Regional Health, the parent company of RGH, has meanwhile resisted the union effort, and spent $1.3 million last year on efforts to persuade workers out of organizing.
Carmen Camelio is the president of RUNAP, and a 20-year veteran nurse who today works in the hospital’s medical intensive care unit. He said the situation today for staffers is dire.
“What we really need to do is retain our nurses, we need to bring back a work environment that people want to be in, stay in, and thrive in, like when I first started here back in the early 2000s,” Camelio said.
The issues at Rochester General Hospital are not new, with Camelio saying staffing issues have been increasingly problematic for about a decade. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue became increasingly exacerbated, and the hospital became increasingly reliant on travel nursing agencies.
Last year, staffing documents from the hospital indicated that upwards of three-quarters of staff positions were unfilled, with the holes plugged by travel nurses.
Phoebe Sheehan, another ICU nurse, said what the hospital is losing is institutional knowledge.
“When I started, I had a 30-year nurse orient me in the ICU, and I had experience when I came in, I wasn’t like a new graduate, but when I came to RGH, I was new to the ICU,” Sheehan said. “Learning from a 30-year nurse is invaluable. I learned so much in my orientation, and what we’re running out of is long-term, experienced nurses here.”
When asked what would be requested first at the collective bargaining table, the resounding sentiment from nurses was safer staffing levels. However, while Camelio held out hope an agreement could be made, he said the hospital and RUNAP were “very far apart.”
Lauren Smith, a nurse in the hospital’s operating room, said RUNAP’s main request is modest.
“The thing that would make us do our jobs more effectively is absolutely, bare minimum, safe staffing ratios,” Smith said. “...Four, five patients maximum for our nurses on the floor. They can not care for more than that safely and effectively, and the people that suffer every time are going to be the patients.”
