“This could be the day, I’m really pleased that they have been working towards a settlement, and fingers crossed, I think they get it done soon.”
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Negotiations continued on Monday between Kapiolani Medical Center and the Hawaii Nurses Association.
Hundreds of nurses have been locked out since they were on a one-day strike over two weeks ago. Federal mediators are also present.
One condition nurses want in their contracts is a better nurse-to-patient ratio.
This is the second strike by Kapiolani nurses this year and both times they have asked for improved working conditions and higher nurse-to-patient ratios, saying they are assigned too many patients which impacts their ability to provide adequate care.
On KHON2’s Wake Up 2Day, Governor Josh Green said he’s hopeful an agreement will come soon.
“This could be the day, I’m really pleased that they have been working towards a settlement, and fingers crossed, I think they get it done soon,” Governor said.
But he also acknowledged the shortage of nurses in Hawaii.
“In order to make sure our nurses stay, we have to help them with their debt and housing,” he added. “We have the second highest pay rate for nurses, but when you adjust for cost of living, we’re at the bottom.”
Others said more can be done to bring in more nurses.
“In the last two years, they’ve considered legislation to join the interstate nursing compact, which would allow nurses from the mainland who hold a license under the compact to come work in Hawaii without having to go through any sort of separate licensure hoops, they could just move here and work here,” explained Malia Hill, police director at the Grassroots Institute of Hawaii.
Currently, 41 states and Guam are part of the compact. Hill said legislation was passed for physicians here in the state, but not for nurses.
Dr. Lynn Babington at Chaminade University is a nurse herself and emphasized the aging nursing workforce and covid-retirements as a contributor to the shortage.
“That left a bigger gap than you would normally find with retirements and then people finishing school nursing programs,” explained Dr. Babington.
“At Chaminade, we are the largest nursing program in the country for baccalaureate prepared nurses, we have made a strategic plan over time to grow that but we are limited by the clinical experiences available in our community for our students,” she added.
Both add specialty care is hard to come by especially on neighbor islands but said the state’s newly rolled out home subsides and student loan repayment could help attract and retain nurses.
Hill added there are barriers and challenges doctors and nurses face when coming to Hawaii to start a practice. “So if it’s hard for doctors to start a practice, it’s going to be hard for nurses to come here and find work,” she said.
“I’ve spoken to nonprofits even on neighbor islands, basically talking about how they get all set up to create this new facility, but then learn that they have to navigate this very complicated bureaucratic system to get permission from the state to actually open their facility,” Hill explained.
“In the meantime, you may have gotten donations to get nurses or hire people or set up, you know your administrators area, or you know you would just build your location, and all of this is on hold, costing you money, costing you resources, costing you staff while you try to navigate it. So reforming certificate of need laws in order to make it easier to set up healthcare facilities would be a good step.”