EVERETT, Wash. — Nurses at Snohomish County’s biggest hospital said staffing levels have been on a steady decline, which is creating potentially dangerous situations for patients.
The union representing Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s nurses, UFCW 3000, said 600 have left or retired since 2021.
Nurses are willing to strike if the hospital doesn't meet some of their contract demands.
The hospital’s chief nursing officer said they’d have to hire about 400 more nurses to be at what they would consider a solid staffing level.
One nurse KING 5 spoke to said too often they see a stream of patients with not enough staff, and they see no end in sight.
"Not having a chance to use the bathroom or put food in your mouth for 12 hours straight,” Registered nurse Dana Robison said. “Then staying two to four hours after your shift, because there's nobody else to take over and you don’t want to leave someone in need without somebody."
The labor and delivery nurse said one day recently in the postpartum unit there were just three nurses for 22 couplets. That is more than double what it should be, according to Robison.
"That's impossible and horribly unsafe," Robison said.
On the hospital floor, there should be one nurse to four patients, but nurses said lately it’s been closer to seven or eight.
"They're treated in the waiting room. They're seen there. They're medicated there. They're discharged there," registered nurse and member of the union bargaining team Juan Stout said.
Providence Everett covers a large portion of Snohomish County, which has always made it a busy hospital. However, now workers say with their current pay there’s not much incentive for many to stay.
“A lot of nurses will leave here and go to our sister hospitals and make a little more and have less patient loads,” Stout said. “Their stress and strain is a lot less."
Hospital administrators acknowledge that with new contracts at other hospitals and inflation, their wages have fallen behind.
“Our wages are not competitive,” PRMCE Chief Nursing Officer Michelle Lundstrom said. “We’re not market competitive. We’ve got some work to do. We recognize that.”
The union and hospital are in current negotiations on a new contract.
Lundstrom said they’ve offered a 13% pay increase. In the meantime, they are also attempting different staffing strategies.
For example, they have nursing assistants check vital signs and do other tasks she said registered nurses would traditionally do alone.
"If we know we're short for RNs now and we're going to be short RNs 10 years from now, we're going to have to lean into some of these other creative staffing models where everyone on the care team is working at the top of their license," Lundstrom said.
The union said the wages need to be above other area hospitals' current contracts, so they remain competitive for several years.
"Put language in our contract that shows they will be willing to hold themselves accountable for a safe level of staffing," Robison said.
Many nurses agreed to strike if a deal isn't reached.
"When you have nurses that are saying that, you know things are dire... Really dire,” Robison said.
Next week there are two more negotiation sessions. Both sides told KING 5 they have made progress in recent weeks. If a few more details are worked out it’s possible they’ll reach an agreement on a new contract.
The hospital said it would be prepared for a strike.
“PRMCE respects and supports our caregivers’ legal right to be represented by a union and to make their voices heard. That said, should the union decide to conduct a work stoppage, PRMCE is prepared for a strike. PRMCE will hire highly skilled replacement nurses for the duration of the strike to ensure our community continues to receive the quality care they have come to expect from PRMCE,” the hospital said in a statement.
The nurses' contract is due Oct. 30.