I’m a nurse in PMMC’s Interventional Cardiovascular Recovery Unit.  The nurses' contract at Providence Medford Medical Center (PMMC) expired six months ago. It's been three months since our historic strike at six Oregon hospitals. After locking us out for two extra days and sending home replacements, they immediately called upon local nurses to fill gaps and cover extra shifts. Many of us have answered Providence’s call, continuing to provide exceptional care. In contrast, others have left for better pay and benefits or moved out of the area entirely, leaving our community in a state of urgent need.

Yet, Providence continues to delay negotiations, ignore nurses’ priorities and mislead the public. Meanwhile, Providence increasingly relies on expensive travel nurses.

Your local nurses stood by our community and Providence throughout the pandemic, often without hazard pay and  with substandard protection. We even delayed our last contract by a year due to COVID-19's uncertainty.

Now, it's clear Providence neither rewards nor respects our loyalty. Despite two years of inflation eroding our wages, Providence's response is to hire more administrators and launch a burnout reduction initiative—focused on their managers. Providence offers its nurses worse pay than smaller health systems while cutting our benefits, a deeply unfair situation. Yet, Providence executives inflate what nurses supposedly earn while overlooking their own multimillion-dollar salaries.

Does shortchanging our communities’ nurses benefit patients? Are they receiving the best care when administrators are highly paid and caregivers are undervalued? Our nurses and community deserve better treatment from Providence.  

Vivian Lamere, RN

ONA Member at Providence Medford Medical Center

Since the nurses' strike in June, Providence Medford Medical Center has delayed negotiations, misled the public, and offered its nurses even worse compensation and benefits. This has led to increased stress and burnout among the remaining nurses and a reduction in the standard of care for patients. Our contract expired in March 2024 but we continue doing our best to care for the community while being paid less than nurses at every other local hospital. Despite this, many of us continue to fill daily staffing shortages because we are deeply committed to you—our patients.

Providence’s current actions contradict the promise they made to the Sisters to maintain compassion, respect, and justice in patient care. While executives receive record pay, nurses are asked to do more with less—fewer staff, lower wages, and reduced benefits.

We were there during the pandemic without hazard pay or adequate protection because we care about our patients. As flu and COVID cases rise again, we worry about being able to maintain the level of care our community deserves. We're asking for fair compensation and benefits that reflect our work and align with other local hospitals.

The Sisters of Providence's legacy of compassion and respect should be maintained. It's time for Providence to support the nurses who care for this community. Please stand with us so we can continue providing the care you deserve. You can help by sharing our story or contacting Providence leadership to advocate for us.

Breanna Zabel, RN

ONA Member at Providence Medford Medical Center