University of Chicago Medical Center nurses represented by National Nurses United have approved a new four-year agreement with the hospital.
The new agreement ends rotating shifts and adds eight new "patient care support nurses" to assist when nursing units are overwhelmed and need extra clinical help or are facing emergencies, according to the union. The agreement also provides an across-the-board pay increase of 9.5 percent for all hospital nurses over the four years of the agreement, with additional increases based on years of experience.
"University of Chicago nurses stood together to end the unsafe practice of rotating shifts, to keep staffing advocacy in the hands of bedside clinical nurses and to improve staffing conditions for our patients and the community," Talisa Hardin, a nurse in the hospital's burn unit, said in a statement.
Debi Albert, CNO at University of Chicago Medicine, called the contract "truly a positive step for all of us as we continue to advance the profession of nursing," according to The Chicago Tribune.
National Nurses United represents approximately 1,500 of the hospital's nurses.
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