Ohio Nurses’ Union Poll Finds 30% Would Quit Hospital Over Vax Mandate.

There are five major local hospital systems, of which all five have announced they will eventually institute a vaccine mandate. Two of the hospitals, Christ Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s, have already set a definite vaccination deadline of October 1. Tri-Health, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and Mercy Health, as of Tuesday, had not set a definite date by which employees had to prove full Covid-19 vaccination. But a new poll of UCMC nurses discovered that 30 percent of respondents stated they would quit their jobs if the hospital did in fact finalize the proposed vaccine mandate.

The survey, which was conducted by the Ohio Nurses Association, had 456 respondents among the nurses, with 136 of them stating they would quit over the vaccine mandate, according to labor representative Dominic Mendiola. Mendiola highlighted how sick people’s care is made more difficult by staffing shortages at hospitals, adding that UCMC already has 30 beds closed due to their lack of staff.

“‘It makes nurses’ jobs harder to be able to provide optimal patient care, which can lead to patient safety concerns down the line if it continues for a long period of time,’ said Mendiola. . .’Over the course of the last two months, we’ve received over 80 objections from nurses to their assignments at the medical center due to short-staffing concerns.'”

While UCMC did agree to “negotiate the vaccine policy” with the nurses’ union, according to Mendiola, the first date that was set for bargaining, August 23, fell through. “They canceled due to stating that they were unable to allow two of our nurses off of the floor for four hours to do the bargaining due to staffing concerns,” Mendiola explained.

The rescheduled date is September 13. The union leaders sent human resources the “latest survey results” to prepare them before the bargaining session.

Local hospitals had uncertain data on the rate of vaccinations among staff.