Licensed nursing assistants at University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington rallied Wednesday to highlight their unionization efforts and advocate for better staffing, Burlington Free Press reports.
The licensed nursing assistants contend there are chronic staffing shortages at UVM Medical Center.
"It is very frustrating," Monica Weir, who has been a nursing assistant at the hospital for three years, told Burlington Free Press. "We cannot take care of our patients the way we want to."
The other issue at hand is the licensed nursing assistants' efforts to join the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals, which led the rally and currently represents nurses at UVM Medical Center. Laurie Aunchman, president of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals, told Burlington Free Press the licensed nursing assistants and other support staff want to form their own entity as part of the nurse bargaining unit.
In response to the concerns about staffing, Kate FitzPatrick, DNP, RN, UVM Medical Center's CNO, stressed that "our patients are safe."
"While we have been experiencing a long period of higher-than-normal numbers of hospitalized patients, our staff — nurses, LNAs, doctors — everyone — has really stepped up to the plate to assure that we maintain the high-quality care for which we are known," she said in a statement.
"We are putting initiatives in place throughout the organization to help all of our staff, including our LNAs, manage the workload before us. We are sensitive to concerns of all of our staff," she added.
As for the unionization efforts, she said the hospital "also recognize[s] their right to organize according to established rules and regulations." However, she said the union is asking the hospital to bypass the normal legal process by voluntarily allowing this group to enter the nurse bargaining unit.
"LNAs do not fall under the 'registered nurses' bargaining unit. We know of no circumstances that would warrant us breaking from the rules and regulations of the National Labor Relations Board on this issue," she said.
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