Above photo: Dozens of nurses at UI Health picketed in front of the Near West Side Hospital. About 1,000 nurses went on strike Monday over safety, staffing and better pay as the Democratic National Convention kicked off blocks away at the United Center. Kristen Schorsch/WBEZ.
About 1,000 nurses at one of Chicago’s busiest hospitals are striking for better pay.
The hospital is about a mile from the DNC.
UI Health nurses allege they’ve been assaulted by patients for years: shoved — one while she was pregnant — and lunged at by a patient’s relative, and otherwise at risk of getting hurt.
“One of the reasons we’re striking is the security here is awful,” Emma Stone, a nurse in the intensive care unit at the Near West Side hospital, said Monday in a field with dozens of other unionized nurses, as their colleagues picketed around the hospital across the street. “It’s very scary as a nurse to think like I could get shot or stabbed.”
Stone is among more than 1,000 nurses at UI Health who went on strike Monday over safety, staffing and better pay, as the Democratic National Convention kicked off blocks away at the United Center.
UI Health is one of the busiest hospitals in the city and likely would be one of the main hospitals where people would seek medical care should they get sick or injured at the convention. Now the hospital is staffed with temporary nurses.
“We’re glad (the strike is) happening during the DNC,” Stone said. “We hope it brings us more attention. … If anything happens there’s tons of other hospitals that are not on strike. I don’t think it’s a public safety issue for us to be on strike.”
A Cook County judge last week ruled that some critical care nurses will be required to work, such as those who treat patients in the intensive care or labor and delivery units. (Stone had the day off). But the majority of nurses at the hospital and clinics could be on strike for up to a week, unless they come to an agreement with UI Health administrators, said Sarah Hurd, an organizer with the Illinois Nurses Association, the union representing the nurses.
When asked for comment, a spokeswoman for UI Health referred to a statement the health system released before the strike and did not immediately respond to accusations from nurses.
“The University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics, the only state hospital in Illinois, is committed to providing high-quality clinical care to Illinois residents,” UI Health said in the recent statement. “Should a work stoppage occur, we are prepared to continue safe patient care and ongoing operations.”
UI Health nurses last went on strike during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their four-year contract just ended. This time they’re fighting to be better protected from violent patients, such as having more security on certain units in the hospital.
Violence against nurses is a national issue. National Nurses United, which represents nurses across the country, surveyed nearly 1,000 nurses last year. They found that 8 out of 10 nurses experienced at least one type of violence at work. Almost half reported an uptick in violence on their unit.
Leander Londres, a pediatric nurse at UI Health for 21 years, said there’s not enough security from the emergency department to the psychiatric unit. In the last year he said several co-workers in the ER were kicked in the back and tore muscles, then were out of work for a year.
Simone Ithier is a nurse who helps prep patients and takes care of them when they recover from procedures. She said she left working in the ER after being violently shoved by a patient into a desk when Ithier was heavily pregnant. This happened several years ago.
“I used to love (the) emergency room, but when I realized that my safety was at risk and that of my own born child at the time, it wasn’t a place I wanted to be anymore,” Ithier said.
She said she feels safer in her current role, but now staffing is an issue. Sometimes there aren’t enough nurses, Ithier said. Those on the clock have to work through lunch or stay late, Ithier said.
The unionized nurses also want a cap on how many patients they’re assigned to take care of depending on how sick they are.
Stone said as an ICU nurse, she now treats two patients at a time and worries that could increase.
“I don’t think their reasoning is anything other than money,” Stone said of hospital management. “They don’t realize that your little grandma in the ICU, she’s not being attended to. Nobody is being able to help her if we’re stretched too thin and in other patient rooms.”
The nurses also want to be paid better, putting them in line with what nurses at other big hospitals in Chicago make.
Despite the frustrations, Londres said he stays for his patients.
“My patients come from all over the U.S. and sometimes the world just to seek our care out,” said Londres, who arrived at the strike around 6 A.M. clad in the union’s colors, white and blue. “I wouldn’t go work anywhere else, especially with the benefits that the union has fought for.”
UI Health is a vast system that includes the hospital and dozens of outpatient clinics, and mostly treats Black and Latino patients. More than 40% of patients are low-income, state public health data shows.
Kristen Schorsch covers public health and Cook County government for WBEZ.