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SLU Hospital Nurses Protest Understaffing, Low Wages | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

June 15, 2023

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click to enlarge Scout Hudson Nurses gathered in front of Saint Louis University Hospital to protest during a National Day of Action.

SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital registered nurses gathered on the side of Grand Boulevard this morning to protest for better conditions for fellow nurses and their patients.

During the one hour event, organized in solidarity with thousands of nurses nationwide in a Day of Action held by National Nurses United, a labor union, the SLU Hospital RNs joined voices in chanting for change — many sacrificing lunch breaks, stopping by after a shift or returning to the medical campus on their day off to do so.

This year’s action follows a 2022 vote of no confidence against Rita Fowler, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, and Chris Greenley, director of human resources cast by a majority of the hospital’s nurses. At the time, nurses told the RFT that understaffing and pay concerns prompted the vote.

As of June, Fowler and Greenley remain in their respective positions, and little else seems to have changed since. Nurses at today’s protest spoke of understaffing and how it impacts patient care, low wages and declining hospital conditions.

Jennifer M. Wiegert, regional director of communications for SSM Health – St. Louis, issued a statement to the RFT saying that the hospital is “committed to providing safe, compassionate, high-quality care for our patients and the community.”

The constant inflow of patients requiring urgent care at the Level 1 Trauma Center has caused the already understaffed nurse force to care for more patients than protocol, protesting nurses say. The union believes understaffing initiates a cycle of overworked nurses, under cared for patients and low staff retention.

“The goal was for ER nurses to take care of three patients, but I have found that even that can be challenging because of the acuity of patients we take care of,” says Jessica Tulk, an emergency room nurse and member of the National Nurses Organizing Committee bargaining team. “We’re stretched so thin that I’m taking care of twice as many people.”

As staffing falls, avoidable medical errors, treatment complications and patient readmission rates rise, the union says. It adds that for each additional surgical patient above an RN’s four-patient capacity, there is a 7 percent increase in the patient’s likelihood of death within 30 days post operation. Tulk reports carrying for as many as eight patients at once while others in need “line the halls” waiting for care.

“If [SLUH] is going to treat me as if I’m two nurses, please pay me respectively — or at least come close, at least try,” Tulk says.

Sarah DeWilde, a surgical RN, has been working with the union since she started at SLU Hospital six years ago. “We are still working under a crisis,” DeWilde says. “We are still working with a 40 percent vacancy rate of nurses.” click to enlarge Scout Hudson The nurses are asking administrators to address staff shortages, low wages and hospital conditions.

Tulk and DeWilde report poor working conditions, Tulk saying she can “count the amount of times she’s had a break in the new hospital on one hand” and that the increasing number of patients means she often can’t truly take her breaks.

“[The nurses] do what we can to try to alleviate stress between each other, but we are not being given enough tools, we are not being given enough support and we are being fought on everything we ask for,” Tulk says.

The union says RN understaffing is an intentional profit-focused practice by hospitals and is not a product of a national shortage of qualified RNs, though a Missouri Hospital Association released in May shows a statewide vacancy rate of 19.4 percent, a slight easing from 2021.

As members of the NNOC bargaining committee, DeWilde and Tulk will meet on Thursday with SLU Hospital administrators to renegotiate the RNs’ contract, which is set to expire in two days. In her statement to the RFT, SSM Health’s Wigert wrote that the protest today was in service of the negotiations.

“We have made very slow progress. [Administrators] haven’t actually verbalized agreement, but they know there is an issue. They know the violence has increased,” says Tulk, referring to an incident earlier this year in which a patient threatened to shoot fellow patients in the emergency room waiting room.

The union reports an increase of patient violence goes alongside staff decreases and increased staff turnover. Per an April 2023 National Nurses United survey, 48 percent of RNs reported an increase in workplace violence, up from 30.6 percent in September 2021.

While Tulk understands that some hazards are innate to nursing, she believes SLU Hospital has been negligent in preventing and responding to unsafe incidents.

“We’ve had nurses put on disciplinary action whenever they request to speak to police following an incident,” Tulk says. “They were asked to go home, without pay, for a week, while [administrators] would investigate the situation.”

Tulk reports that many RNs feel “unsafe and have anxieties about coming to work,” and that the hospital does not provide appropriate resources for dealing with harm.

“At the end of the day, what we are asking for we feel is very reasonable,” Tulk says. “We are just asking to be treated fairly, to be valued as the nurses we are.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

12 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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