With no significant progress at the bargaining table since their overwhelming recent vote to authorize a strike, The Aroostook Medical Center (TAMC) nurses delivered a 10-day notice yesterday of their intent to strike on July 22 and 23—and have made an unconditional offer to return on July 24.

“I have been committed to TAMC for 20 years. But over the last five years, I have witnessed turnover and understaffing like never before,” said Bargaining Team member Liane Koch, RN, “As nurses, we are the ones that have to make a stand. Patients’ voices will only be heard if we speak loudly for them.”

Nurses say that, while it is never their preference to strike, they feel they have no choice with management’s refusal to address key issues throughout the facility, including safe patient staffing and the recruitment and retention of experienced nurses.

“It was and is our goal to avoid a strike at our facility,” said Bargaining Team member and chair of TAMC’s Professional Practice Committee Lori McPherson. “We want TAMC to meet the needs of our community through advancements related to safe staffing in the form of recruiting and retaining competent, high quality nurses who are committed to our profession and our community.”

Numerous studies have shown that strong nurse-to-patient staffing ratios improve patient outcomes, protect hospital staff and reduce nurse burnout. A 2014 study published by Nursing Standard, for example, revealed that seven additional lives would be saved for every 100 Intensive Care Unit patients with improved nurse-to-patient ratios. Another study by Aiken and colleagues, in the Journal of American Medicine, found statistically significant relationships between lower nurses-to-patient ratios and higher levels of RN dissatisfaction and burnout.

“Advocating for patients is what we do. TAMC should not have a shortage of nurses at the bedside, with two nursing schools in the area. But we do,” said Union Chief Steward and Bargaining Team member Kim Cooper, RN. “We ask for the community’s support as we take a stand for all of us.”

TAMC nurses’ have been working without a contract since it expired on July 7.