Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette Members of the Michigan Nurses Association of Aspirus Keweenaw rallied alongside supporters on Tuesday to raise awareness of working conditions within the Laurium facility. The nurses want to see a return to prior staffing numbers.

HOUGHTON — Nurses at Aspirus Keweenaw and several supporters rallied across the Portage Lift Bridge Tuesday in an effort to raise awareness of what they believe to be unsatisfactory working conditions at Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital in Laurium. The nurses are members of the Michigan Nurses Association and according to a release from the association the rally served to call on Aspirus Keweenaw to “invest in safe nurse staffing — not just fancy buildings.” The hospital is planning to modernize with a $36 million project. The press release stated the nurses are calling to on Aspirus to rescind staffing changes and invest in recruiting and retaining enough nurses to serve the community.

The rally began at the Houghton side of the bridge and the nurses walked to the Hancock side. They stationed themselves at each end and the middle of the bridge’s walkway where they displayed signs and received support from drivers through honking car horns. Among the nurses were Michigan Nurses Association Aspirus Keweenaw President and MSNRN Melissa Helppi.

Helppi said staffing changes at the hospital and the numbers of workers declining contributed to the reason behind the rally. She explained the nurse-to-patient numbers that were agreed upon between the nursing staff and management were previously working. “Management has since changed the staffing numbers, and we’ve seen decrease in capability to perform quality nursing care because of that,” Helppi said. “We’re just bringing awareness to the community that we’re fighting for them in a small community like this. Our neighbors are our patients, and we want to provide that really thorough, safe, quality care to our patients. That’s why nurses work in small community hospitals. They really care about their patients and want to do well by them, and these staffing numbers aren’t allowing us to do good nursing care.”

Helppi said a typical shift in an inpatient department has the nurse care for things such as hygiene care, toileting, medications, nursing assessments and fulfilling new orders that the medical provider add. When the nurses have too many patients in their care, Helppi said patients can feel poorly attended to if they receive medications late or have to wait for assistance to use the restroom.

Connie Keranen works in the Aspirus emergency room and intensive care unit. She said the hospital removed the house supervisor, who served as an extra person to provide assistance. Keranen said the house supervisor was moved to a position that does not assist nurses.

“And they also are attacking us by talking about taking away our nurses’ aide, who takes care of everyone,” Keranen said. “She’s like our mother of the unit. And we just want to show the community that we’re going to do everything we can to keep our staffing as good as it can be, so we can do the best care.”

Keranen said she wants to see the prior staffing numbers return, the hiring of aides and the house supervisor back. She added that six nurses quit the job in a two month period, and the current staffing cannot keep up with tasks.

“You have to move really fast to do the tasks that you have to get done. And no matter how fast you move, you can’t get them done on time,” Helppi said.

Aspirus Health released a statement Tuesday prior to the rally : “Aspirus has a threefold commitment: to our patients, our people and our communities. As such, we respect the right of all employees to rally. However, in this case, the nurses seem to be protesting against something their colleagues had a hand in structuring, as our staff nurses were engaged throughout the process. Most important, the changes have been appropriate and effective. Since the new model was put in place in late March, registered nurses on the medical-surgical care unit have served four patients or fewer per shift 81 percent of the time and five patients 19 percent of the time. At no time over this period has any nurse been assigned six or more patients. In short, we have implemented an appropriate, effective staffing model that allows our valued care team to continue serving patients with excellence and compassion.”