Wilcox Memorial Hospital hosts negotiations with the Hawai‘i Nurses Association today in a bid to bring about 120 nurses back to work. The meeting will be the first that has taken place on Wilcox property since the strike began in
Wilcox Memorial Hospital hosts negotiations with the Hawai‘i Nurses Association today in a bid to bring about 120 nurses back to work.
The meeting will be the first that has taken place on Wilcox property since the strike began in June.
“It’s very symbolic because up until now we could not set foot on the property,” said Clyde Hiyashi, a member of the negotiating team.
Lani Yukimura, spokeswoman for Wilcox, said hospital officials felt “hopeful.”
“It’s where we began our negotiations so it would be a good place to reach an agreement,” she said.
The presidents of the American Nurses Association and the Michigan Nurses Association visited the makeshift HNA headquarters near Wilcox yesterday, rallying attendance at a picket line that at times has dwindled to one nurse.
Nurses paced the hospital entranceway, waved at passersby and talked story — a development that Janette Wolff, a Wilcox nurse with 15 years of experience in the operating room, said the nurses would carry with them when the strike ends.
“It’s brought us together as a group,” Wolff said. “We realize that we’re all one family.”
That family includes nurses across the nation, said Terri Premo-Peaphon, president of the Michigan Nurses Association, an HNA affiliate.
She delivered more than $6,000 to the Wilcox nurses’ emergency fund from the MNA — donations that she said came from about 140 individuals, as well as hospital groups, who wanted to support the strike.
“Nurses are most concerned about being able to give good quality care to their patients,” she said.
The strike has national impact, said Becky Patton, the president of ANA, who also visited the picket line yesterday.
ANA focuses on developing research, legislation and education to support five core issues, one of which is staffing, she said.
Patton said she came to Kaua‘i to show her respect for the nurses, who say that their strike centers around the call for a staffing system that evaluates patient needs and includes nurse input.
“It’s not just a numbers game anymore,” Patton said. “Health care is too complex.”
She urged nurses who gathered for a question-and-answer session to continue to speak about staffing and other concerns after the strike has settled.
