LITTLE ROCK — Some registered nurses who work in the St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center emergency room quit or were transferred to other departments in anticipation of a change in their work schedules, a hospital vice president said Friday.
John Timmis, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for the St. Vincent Health System, which is based in Little Rock, said that the emergency room has seen four resignations and six transfers, adding that there are 42 registered-nurse positions in the emergency room.
“Clearly,” Timmis said, some of the nurses were upset over the proposed staffing schedule change, which is to go into effect March 17.
News of the resignations came to the attention of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Friday when a woman who identified herself as registered nurse who formerly worked in the St. Vincent emergency room said that more than half of the 38 nurses assigned to that department had resigned.
Timmis said emergency room nurses are currently working three 12-hour shifts per week.
While such workweeks would remain after the new schedule goes into effect, about one-third of the nurses would be on eight-hour shifts, though no one would be working a mixture of morning and evening shifts, he said.
Cheryl Coleman, chief steward of the Office and Professional Employees International Union local, which represents nurses at the hospital, said she could only say that “we are working with the hospital, but it's nothing we can talk about yet.”
The final version of the staffing schedule was finalized about two weeks ago, Timmis said, and when the hospital initially presented it to the emergency room nurses with a mixture of morning and evening shifts, some objected.
The hospital has about 1,000 registered nurses and has flexibility to shift nurses to fill spots when staffing disruptions occur, Timmis said.
The changes are designed to address the need for more staffing in the evening, Timmis said, when there is greater demand for emergency care.
Business, Pages 29 on 03/02/2013