RN candlelight vigil: Sunday, November 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Registered nurses at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center (SMRMC) in Reno, Nevada, will hold a candlelight vigil on Sunday, November 15, to protest the abrupt closure of the oncology unit, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC). SMRMC nurses will also call attention to cuts to ancillary staff and lack of working equipment.

Management has not made any official announcement of the oncology unit’s closure, but oncology charge nurses have been called off since October 26, and cancer patients are now on the medical-surgical floor. Immunocompromised cancer patients are now on a floor where they could potentially be exposed to patients with Covid or other infectious diseases. Some oncology unit nurses have been floated to other units or been called off. Meanwhile, med-surg charge nurses have not been given the training to oversee oncology patients who are now in their unit.

“The closure of our oncology unit has left staff with many questions regarding our cancer patients and nursing jobs,” said Jennifer Oaks, RN in the telemetry unit. “Several of our oncology nurses have been with Saint Mary’s for many years and are deeply connected to their work. They are now looking at their shifts being canceled, possibly indefinitely.”

Who:    RNs at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center

What:   Candlelight vigil for patient safety

When:  Sunday, November 15, 5:30-8:30 p.m., speakers at 6 p.m.

Where: Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, on the corner of 6th St. and Arlington St., Reno, Nevada.

“Management’s decision to eliminate unit clerks causes delays in patient care. On telemetry, the monitor techs’ sole job should be to monitor patients’ cardiac rhythms so they can immediately report changes and potentially life-threatening arrhythmias,” said Laura Parkhouse, RN in the telemetry unit. “Now they are tasked with managing the communications between nursing staff and family, providers and diagnostic and operative staff as well as the administrative work of transferring patients into and out of the units and escalating facilities issues when equipment is not functioning. It’s an extremely unfair burden to place on one person and raises the risk of something important being missed.”

“Management has also cut back on house supervisors and called off charge nurses, leaving units without critical assistance in the hospital,” said Oaks, RN. “Management has not explained why they are making these decisions. Charge nurses oversee the work of the RNs in the unit and are a vital resource for them.”

“There are not enough working vital signs machines in the hospital and when we can find a working one, we have to use the same one for several patients,” said Michelle Sorge, RN in the oncology unit. “We should have one in every room.”

Union nurses at Saint Mary’s held a strike on Sept. 3, along with nurses at three other Prime Healthcare hospitals, to protest Prime’s refusal to address their deep concerns about patient care and safe staffing. RNs also held a sympathy strike on Sept. 15, in solidarity with nurses at Olympia Fields Hospital, a Prime facility in Olympia Fields, Ill., who faced retaliation from management for advocating for better patient care conditions

This follows a pattern of Prime attempting to silence nurses at hospitals across the country for speaking up and advocating for their patients. Earlier this year, two nurses on the bargaining team at Saint Mary’s were wrongfully terminated for their patient advocacy. SMRMC nurses have been bargaining for a new contract since July 2025. Their contract expired in September 2025. Prime has refused to return to the bargaining table.

NNOC/NNU represents more than 350 registered nurses at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

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.