Tenet: 12-Hour Nursing Shifts at Saint Vincent Hospital Will Enhance Recruitment & Retention

In full transparency, the following press release was submitted to SOURCE media for publication (stock photo)

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WORCESTER –  Saint Vincent Hospital’s collective bargaining agreement with the Massachusetts Nurses Association explicitly gives us the right to move nurses to 12-hour shifts with 30 days’ notice. Our decision to transition to twelve-hour shifts is to enable the hospital to attract and retain as many nurses as possible.

An overwhelming majority of applicants and current employees strongly prefer three 12-hour shifts per week over five 8-hour shifts per week.

Additionally, 12-hour shifts have become common for nurses working in local hospitals such as UMass Memorial Medical Center, and many other hospitals across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States.

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Although we are not obligated to negotiate with the MNA on this issue, we offered to meet and confer. We also provided them with far more notice than the collective bargaining agreement requires. We asked the MNA to identify any nurse with concerns about this change, but the MNA stalled and refused to cooperate. Finally, they provided an incomplete list of potential conflicts just hours before distributing their press release attacking the hospital.

We continue to focus on moving forward in a productive manner with our nurses, and this is an example of our responsiveness to our nurses’ desire for more flexibility. Saint Vincent is committed to maintaining robust, highly rated nurse staffing, and expanding services to care for the greater Worcester community.

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Saint Vincent Hospital is an acute care hospital providing general and tertiary medical services to residents of Worcester and Central Massachusetts. The hospital is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, which also owns and operates MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham.