“One day longer, one day stronger,” St. Vincent Nurse Jayne Antos said Thursday. “We’re in it to the end because patients come first.”
Nurses Michelle Stearns echoed that “one day longer” slogan, calling it the nurses’ “motto.”
“I think it made us feel more focused,” Stearns said. “Some of the nurses got riled up with the news at first, but it made them stronger.”
St. Vincent Hospital announced Wednesday evening that it was hiring permanent replacement nurses “to provide consistent support and relief to nurses who have returned to work as well as temporary replacement nurses.”
In an interview Thursday, St. Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson noted that the move had an added benefit of reducing costs, as a permanent nurse costs less to employ than replacement nurses.