RNs say refusal to hire nurses is putting patients at risk

Registered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center (JPH) will hold an informational picket on Friday, July 31, 2026, to raise their concerns about short staffing of both nurses and ancillary staff putting patients at risk, contributing to a high staff turnover, and creating challenges recruiting and retaining nurses. JPH nurses say management has made a deliberate attempt to leave vital support position vacancies unfilled, leading to missed meals and breaks, moral distress for nurses, and increased chances for mistakes or harm to patients. Nurses at JPH are represented by National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU).

“As a registered nurse at Jackson Park Hospital, I know the residents in our community deserve quality care from units staffed safely,” said Jennifer Harris Goldsmith, RN. “It is deeply disturbing that management has shown itself unwilling to hire the nurses needed to maintain the staffing standards that have been proven to save lives.” 

Who: Jackson Park Hospital nurses, community allies, and elected officials
What:  Informational picket and rally for patient safety
When: Friday, July 31, 2023, picketing from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., rally with speakers at 10 a.m.
Where: Jackson Park Hospital, 7531 S. Stony Island Ave., Chicago, Ill. 

JPH serves some of the most vulnerable communities on the South Side of Chicago, but hospital management has failed to provide adequate staffing, leading to delays in patient care and insufficient support for patients who deserve high-quality care.

JPH nurses have documented regular short staffing throughout the hospital, which they say has jeopardized and delayed patient care, including frequent incidents where nurses are caring for more than twice the number of recommended patients. Nurses say JPH has also failed to hire patient care support nurses, who help to relieve nurses when the patient census spikes and give them much needed meal and break relief. 

Meanwhile, hospital management is proposing dramatic increases to the costs of the current health insurance benefit for nurses, an increase that would result in a de facto pay cut. Increasing the costs of health insurance will drive more nurses away from JPH and add additional barriers to recruiting desperately needed nursing talent.  

“Our patients are already understaffed and at risk,” said Pamela Upton, RN in a medical-surgical unit. “And more nurses will leave because we know we deserve to have access to competitively benefitted jobs. So, we are asking Jackson Park Hospital to make a commitment to the community it serves by providing access to quality union nurse positions with good benefits.” 

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.