Registered nurses at two Ascension hospitals in Kansas — Ascension Via Christi St. Francis and Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph hospitals in Wichita — and one Ascension hospital in Texas are striking Wednesday. The strike began at 7 a.m. with nurses on the line shouting that they wanted “safe staffing.”
The nurses say the one-day strike protests unsafe conditions management has failed to remedy. The nurses also went on a one-day strike back in June.
“We are extremely frustrated. We have been at this for months, and there just has been a complete stall in all of the bargaining, and we just want to take care of patients, and we want to do it safely,” Megan Morgan, a registered nurse, said. “We want to have the resources and beds to do it.”
“As the mayor of Wichita, know that I support you, and I am out here in the cold with you because you deserve better than this,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said. “I haven’t forgotten, and Wichitans haven’t forgotten what you have done over your career, but particularly these last four years. We have faced crisis after crisis when it comes to the pandemic and other things that follow that, so thank you for what you do.”
https://www.ksn.com/news/local/nurses-at-wichita-ascension-hospitals-striking-today/