A panel of nurses including elected union leadership and actively striking nurses will discuss safe nurse-to-patient ratios, how ratios improve patient care and working conditions, and why ratios are proven as the best solution to the national nurse staffing crisis.

With negotiations for their new contract set to begin Thursday, September 14, University of Chicago Medical Center nurses are urgently calling on management to reverse the endemic short-staffing at the hospital. The 2,800 registered nurses are highlighting the impact of unsustainable working conditions on nurse turnover and patient care.

Nurses at Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital in Marina del Rey, Calif., will hold a one-day strike tomorrow and rally to protest the administration’s refusal to address nurse recruitment and retention issues impacting patient care during contract negotiations.

Registered nurses at Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC) in North Chicago, Ill., will hold an informational picket on Thursday, Sept. 7, to make the public aware of management’s refusal to implement flexible work schedules at the facility.

Hundreds of union members including nurses, electricians, food and beverage workers, and other workers from across North Carolina will rally for health care justice and workers’ rights in downtown Asheville’s Pack Square Park on Thursday, Sept. 7.

RNs at The Hospitals of Providence’s Memorial, Sierra, and East Campuses in El Paso, Tex., voted 97.7 percent in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract yesterday, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention.

RNs at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., voted yesterday 94 percent in favor of authorizing a strike if the issues nurses have been raising remain unresolved.

The rally will focus on urgent issues at their facility, such as CNVAMC's 25 percent nurse vacancy rate, executive management's lack of respect towards RNs, work-life imbalance for nurses who are stretched beyond the limit, and patient safety risks — all of which are driving nurses away.

Nurses at Ascension hospitals in Wichita, Kansas and Austin, Texas are demanding that Ascension make contractual commitments to address the dual crises of workplace violence and short staffing, which are threatening patient care at the chain’s hospitals.

Registered nurses working for the Atlanta VA Health System in the metro Atlanta region will hold a protest on Thursday, Aug. 31. Nurses will highlight their increasing concerns about their patients’ safety, on-going short staffing, the lack of respect shown to nursing staff by executive management, and the lack of work-life balance for nurses who are stretched to the limit.