{"id":682894,"date":"2026-06-04T01:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682894\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:09:10","slug":"fired-nurses-allege-retaliation-for-voicing-concerns-about-conditions-at-st-mary-of-nazareth-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/682894\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired nurses allege retaliation for voicing concerns about conditions at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

When St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital was acquired by Prime Healthcare in March 2025, nurse Karlie Thorn said she noticed conditions in the emergency department changed for the worse almost immediately.<\/p>\n

A disproportionate number of inexperienced nurses, cheaper supplies and staffing shortages were among the concerning conditions Thorn and several other nurses allege, alarming them enough to prompt them to consider forming a union.<\/p>\n

As staffers launched an effort to hold an election to unionize with National Nurses Organizing Committee\/National Nurses United last month, at least six nurses were fired in what the union calls a \u201ctroubling pattern of going after experienced nurses who are advocating for their patients and coworkers.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it sent a message to the nurses in our community that we\u2019re expendable, and when we speak up for each other, they\u2019ll get rid of us with no just cause,\u201d said Thorn, one of the fired nurses. \u201cWe want an election that\u2019s fair and without interference from Prime, and we want our nurses back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs nurses, we take care of everyone all day,\u201d added Thorn, an emergency department nurse for the last four years. \u201cWe deserve to be taken care of as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Registered nurses at St. Mary\u2019s plan to hold a one-day strike on June 11 to protest what they is retaliation for speaking out about unsafe conditions, calling it a strike for \u201cpatient safety and an end to union busting.\u201d The fired nurses are also petitioning to get their jobs back.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, a St. Mary\u2019s spokesperson said: \u201cWe have not and will not retaliate against employees for exercising their rights and have consistently applied long-standing hospital policies that protect safety and patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaint Mary\u2019s of Nazareth Hospital respects the right of nurses to make their own decisions regarding union representation and to engage in lawful protected activity,\u201d the statement said. St. Mary\u2019s added that \u201ccomprehensive plans\u201d were in place to ensure operations are uninterrupted during the one-day strike.<\/p>\n

Since Prime acquired St. Mary\u2019s, along with seven other area hospitals, nurses at the Ukrainian Village hospital say they have felt overworked, fearful of keeping their jobs and more concerned about their safety and that of their patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always had staffing issues in the ER, but they have gotten worse since Prime took over,\u201d Thorn said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not safe for us to have 25 people in the waiting room and each nurse already has four to five patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patient ratios for emergency room nurses are typically 1:5, Thorn said, though more recently the ratio has been seven patients for every nurse \u2014 because staff members left over concerns about hospital conditions, or because they were fired.<\/p>\n

Jesus Hernandez, a behavioral health nurse for the seven years before he was fired, said his unit has lost monitors, making it more difficult to care for patients quickly and leaving patients at risk of harming each other or staff members who are responding to a crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The monitors] are kind of our eyes and ears on the behavioral health floor to make sure the patients and staff are safe,\u201d Hernandez said. <\/p>\n

Some older patients are more likely to fall, while others without a safety attendant have impulses that could lead to physical aggression, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Nurse<\/p>\n

Aimee Bae says she was fired last month after seven years at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital after speaking out about changes in staffing, medications and protocols that she says aren\u2019t safe for patients and staff.<\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Amiee Bae worked for more than seven years in St. Mary\u2019s acute male psychiatric unit before being fired \u2014 because, she said, she spoke out about poor conditions in her unit.<\/p>\n

Bae said the changes after Prime took over were small at first. Things like lower-quailty gloves, patient socks and towels gave way to bigger changes, Bae said, including the loss of addiction medication that in some instances was lifesaving for patients in the hospital\u2019s six psychiatric units.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlcohol withdrawal can kill somebody if you\u2019re not treating them properly,\u201d Bae said. \u201cThey can go into severe pain and distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Bae has been a vocal critic of the changes she\u2019s seen since Prime took over, she said she\u2019s still willing to work with the California-based healthcare company because of her passion for nursing. She hopes the strike leads to the fired nurses getting reinstated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave 200% of my soul, my physical capacity to St. Mary\u2019s for seven years,\u201d Bae said. \u201cI\u2019m still willing to work with Prime because I love my hospital. I love who I serve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital was acquired by Prime Healthcare in March 2025, nurse Karlie Thorn said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-682894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}