Nurses at ACMH Hospital will finish their planned five-day strike early Friday morning. Their efforts have drawn support of politicians. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Butler-area state Rep. Abby Major, R-60th, showed her support for striking nurses in Armstrong County on Wednesday, a day before the strike wrapped up.

The 220 nurses at ACMH Hospital in Kittanning were on strike from Sunday through Friday morning, after they claim the hospital refused to negotiate a new union contract with them in good faith and address staffing issues.

Throughout the week, they increasingly attracted the support of Pennsylvania politicians, including Major, who pledged her support, and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who spoke at a noon rally Thursday.

Major, according to ACMH Nurses United, the union representing registered nurses at the hospital, attended a rally Wednesday and told the nurses, “I am behind you.” Major’s district includes ACMH, as well as Buffalo and Winfield townships in Butler County.

When the nurses’ union threatened a strike in February, it alleged the hospital made no effort to properly staff the nursing corps, leading to high staff turnover and decreased quality of care. While the entire state faces a staffing crisis, the union alleges, ACMH has been unwilling to invest in “effective nurse retention efforts.”

Since March 2021, the union claims, more than 40 nurses left the hospital and more dropped from full- to part-time hours. Worse yet, the union alleges, ACMH “has refused to commit to using a portion of” $333,000 it received in state aid to retain current nurses. The funds were earmarked for staff retention and recruitment.

The union claims the staffing issues have had a detrimental effect on patient safety and care.

“I hear my name 800 times a shift because the majority of the ICU unit is staffed by agency (travel) nurses who don’t know where anything is or how the hospital works,” said Kayley Baker, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit. “You know who suffers all those losses? The patient. And our community.”

ACMH, on the other hand, has repeatedly claimed the union makes “material misstatements about the hospital and about these (contract) negotiations.”

“First, it is inaccurate to claim that ACMH has refused to engage in recruitment efforts,” the hospital said in a March 2 statement. “The hospital has been recruiting for vacancies on a constant basis. There is, however, a nursing shortage across Pennsylvania which has affected ACMH and every other acute care hospital.”

The hospital additionally claimed a strike will not improve bedside conditions, and alleged the strike is not “over patient care.”

“The union has no outstanding proposals that impact on (sic) bedside care,” the hospital said in the statement. “Rather, the disagreement between the parties is almost exclusively over money.”

ACMH Nurses United was on strike from 7 a.m. Sunday through 5 a.m. Friday in an effort to “call attention to hospital management’s refusal to prioritize nurse retention and therefore patient care.”

State Rep. Abby Major, R-60th, second from left, made an appearance at a rally held by ACMH Nurses United on Wednesday. Registered nurses at ACMH Hospital, represented by Nurses United, were on strike from Sunday through Friday. Submitted photo