Wichita nurses to strike after ‘serious incidents’ underscore security gaps

Nurses at two Wichita hospitals plan to go on a one-day strike July 6 to protest what it calls the administration’s refusal to address concerns they say they’ve raised about patient safety and workplace violence.

Nurses at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph and St. Francis hospitals are part of the National Nurses Organizing Committee and National Nurses United labor union. They are responding to two recent incidents at St. Joseph — a suicide by gun outside the emergency department on Sunday and shooting threats on Wednesday that placed the hospital on lockdown — along with earlier incidents they say should have prompted action sooner.

Ascension Via Christi leaders told staff at both hospitals on Wednesday afternoon — after nurses had voted to authorize a strike — that they plan to install weapon-detection devices and bolster security at emergency department entrances in August. The union announcement does not acknowledge that memo, and the union has not responded to questions from The Eagle on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Nurses have experienced increasing and extremely serious incidents of workplace violence against staff and far too many threats against both patients and staff — including a grenade found on Easter,” the union, which represents nearly 1,200 nurses in Wichita, said in its announcement of the strike. “Throughout negotiations, RNs have asked that Ascension take the nurses’ demands for workplace violence protections seriously and implement commonsense measures to protect staff and patients.”

“We have been sounding the alarm and calling for weapons detection systems for years, but the administration has refused to listen,” Carol Samsel, RN in the critical care unit at St. Joseph, is quoted saying in the union’s statement. “We need a simple metal detector to prevent guns and other weapons from getting inside the hospital.”

The strike announcement says St. Francis and St. Joseph nurses have been in negotiations for a new contract since March “with little to no movement on key issues around safe staffing and protections.”

“Nurses and other health care workers should not feel scared to come to work at our hospitals,” said Shelly Rader, RN in the emergency department at St. Francis, in the announcement. “Our hospitals should be places of refuge and healing for our patients.”

In response to questions about the two security incidents at St. Joseph this week, Ascension Via Christi spokesman Bill Kueser said the health and safety of patients, visitors and associates is the hospital system’s highest priority.

“We continually evaluate our security policies and invest in proactive safety enhancements to help ensure a secure and welcoming environment across our facilities,” he said. “As part of our ongoing security program, this August we are introducing new 24-hour weapons detection systems in our Via Christi St. Francis and St. Joseph Emergency Departments and expanding our dedicated security workforce. These measures build on existing safety measures, including specialized de-escalation training for our teams, expanded video surveillance, upgraded lighting and an enhanced visitor management system.”