U. of C. Medical Center nurses protest staff shortages

The stack of papers was about two feet tall — some 1,400 complaints in all.

Those, a group of University of Chicago Medical Center nurses said Tuesday, are the number of times they and their colleagues have documented concerns about everything from staffing shortages to a lack of equipment at the hospital since January 2017.

“You have to remember that every time a nurse ... [fills out the form], takes the time out of what is already a busy and chaotic day, there are probably 10 more times that nobody had the time or the will to do it. So this is the tip of the iceberg,” said Marti Smith, the Midwest director of National Nurses United, the union representing the approximately 2,200 nurses working at the hospital.

About a dozen or so of those nurses and their supporters stood outside the South Side hospital Tuesday, demanding administrators make changes. The nurses are in the middle of negotiations for a new contract; their most recent one expired in April.

“Understaffing and forced overtime are dangerous conditions in any workplace,” said Elaine Mister, a case management nurse at UCMC. “But in the dynamic, high-paced and high stress hospital environment, not following laws can be deadly or harmful to nurses, patients and their families.”

The nurses say they sometimes have no choice but to work as much as six hours of overtime at the end of a 12-hour shift because there aren’t enough nurses. One nurse, the group said, even cut short her vacation because she was so worried about a nursing shortage.

But the administration accused the nurses union of making “sensational allegations,” something that’s “consistent with the [union] playbook that prioritizes media attention over productive dialogue.”

“UCMC takes issues of nurse staffing and workplace safety very seriously, and is consistently adapting and finding solutions that best serve our nurses and patients,” according to a written statement.