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Registered nurses at several Jefferson Health hospitals and centers in the Greater Philadelphia area announced Tuesday that they are unionizing, citing persistent staffing shortfalls, heavier workloads and other issues.
More than 200 staff members across Jefferson Bucks Hospital in Langhorne, and Jefferson Health – Center One and Jefferson Health Willowcrest, both in Philadelphia, have filed to unionize under the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP.
“At the end of the day, our No. 1 priority is making sure our patients receive the safest, highest quality care possible,” said Ashley Bupp, an emergency department registered nurse at Jefferson Bucks Hospital. “We’ve tried to be heard for a long time. Now, we’re coming together to make sure our voices can’t be ignored now or in the future.”
Health workers at the different locations still need to conduct official votes, which require a simple majority to unionize.
Kayla Occhiolini (left) and Kiersten McCalmant, both registered nurses at Jefferson Bucks Hospital in Langhorne, Pa., are among 200 health care workers at Jefferson Health who will vote on whether to unionize under PASNAP, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Nicole Leonard/WHYY)
If approved and certified, nurses at the Langhorne hospital would form an independent local under PASNAP, which represents more than 11,000 health care workers across Pennsylvania. Nurses at Center One and Willowcrest have filed to join an existing bargaining unit of roughly 1,200 nurses based at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital.
Burnout and other problems that developed during the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t gotten better, said nurses at Jefferson Bucks.
For example, wait times in the emergency room have grown longer because of a lack of nurses able to staff inpatient beds, said registered nurse Kayla Occhiolini, resulting in delayed health care.
“This is a small community hospital. We need some help instead of patients sitting in the ER until 9 p.m., alone, to get their surgery at 10 o’clock at night. That’s not OK,” said Occhiolini, who works in the operating room. “We need these patients to be taken care of. And Jefferson, we feel, is not doing that for us.”