Minneapolis nurse would give up ‘every ounce of raise’ in exchange for safety

[Valin]

Alpha News

"Minneapolis isn’t safe anymore. Our staff isn’t safe. We’re constantly getting security text notices about lockdowns. We get text messages at least every other day about drive-by shootings, assaults, robberies, or guns being brought into the ER," a nurse told Alpha News.

Sheila Qualls

September 7, 2022

Bullets fly, some finding homes in hospital walls. Sick bodies lie in bays waiting to be triaged because of staffing shortages. Someone is ambushed while treating patients, jerked to the ground by her hair from behind and kneed in the head so hard she suffers a head trauma. She is now a casualty, out on leave with PTSD. No, this not Afghanistan. This is a routine night at a hospital emergency room in downtown Minneapolis.

This war-zone like work environment has become common for nursing staff there, who will participate in a strike next week with 15,000 nurses from 16 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Duluth area.

While many media reports have pointed to staffing, retention, and patient costs as motivating factors, other nurses are citing safety as the primary reason they’re willing to walk off the job.

“This isn’t about money. Sure, it’s important, but money means nothing if you’re worried about your safety and your ability to care for patients,” said an ER hospital nurse who spoke with Alpha news and requested to remain anonymous. Alpha News spoke with nurses employed at two different hospital locations in the city.

Their concerns are identical, and they both requested their identities be concealed.

(Snip)

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Dollars to Donuts the same story can be said about All Major  metro hospitals.

[Valin]

15,000 Minnesota nurses officially on strike after negotiations fail