MNA Essentia Nurses Prepare for Friday’s Picket

DULUTH, Minn.–“To avoid any HIPPA violations I’ll just say that nurses are almost daily in tears trying to deal with the struggle of knowing that we don’t have enough staff. It’s very stressful,” said RN Staff Nurse Stacee Rosier. 

Essentia nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association are getting their signs ready for an informational picket July 21, calling staffing levels “disastrous.”

Tuesday, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association gathered at the Duluth Labor Temple building to get signs prepared for the picket outside of the new St. Mary’s Medical Center in downtown from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. This is the same day Essentia will hold a community open house for the health center before it welcomes its first patient on July 30.

“With the new building opening there has been lots of concerns. They were supposed to be given 16 hours of training, a lot of nurses have not been in the building yet. The 1:5 ratio is not good. We don’t know if we can give the care that the patients deserve,” said nurse Marcia Swanson.

The Minnesota Nurses Association says Essentia executives aren’t listening and instead are putting profits before patients.

“Our biggest concern with the old building is still staffing. So in the new building that’s not going to change for the better, it’s actually going to change for the worst. The space is much larger so we will have our nurses be more spread out, spread even thinner. And we’re also not very familiar with the space,” said Rosier.

This picket comes just six months since nurses at Essentia reached a new contract.

Below is Essentia’s full statement sent to FOX 21 Wednesday:

We are focused on celebrating the replacement St. Mary’s Medical Center, the largest private investment in health care in the history of our region. This state-of-the-art hospital allows our colleagues to bring innovative care to the communities we are privileged to serve. This facility demonstrates our unwavering commitment to our patients, our colleagues and our community.

We work closely with all of our care teams, including nurses, to ensure we are staffing to best meet our patients’ needs. That practice has led to Essentia consistently being ranked as one of the highest-quality health systems in the state. St. Mary’s Medical Center is a five-star hospital as rated by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Regrettably, the Minnesota Nurses Association continues to spread fear and misrepresent the excellent care our nurses provide.  

Essentia’s appreciation and commitment to providing a great working environment is evidenced by the facts:

• Essentia has hired more than 800 new nurses over the past year alone.
• Our retention rates for nurses are far better than the national average.
• A newly graduated nurse, with a two-year degree, working full-time is paid $79,000, plus benefits — that pay goes up substantially depending on a nurse’s experience.
• The average workweek for MNA-represented nurses at Essentia Health is 26 hours.
• 78% of Twin Ports nurses choose to work 3-4 days per week with full benefits.