Ascension Via Christi announced a contingency plan for when nurses at St. Francis and St. Joseph Hospitals in Wichita intend to strike next week.
Registered nurses who are represented by National Nurses United will strike from 7:00 a.m. on July 6 until 7:00 a.m. on July 7.
Ascension will use credentialed replacement registered nurses through a staffing agency specializing in work stoppages. Nurses who don't report to work will be temporarily replaced and will be able to return to their scheduled shifts beginning the morning of July 10 once the contractual obligation is fulfilled. Any registered nurses who work the day of the strike will also work their regularly scheduled shifts during the replacement period.
Nurses say they will strike due to safety concerns at the hospitals. Ascension says they will install new weapons detection systems at each hospital's Emergency Departments in August and will expand the security workforce.
