AUSTIN, Texas — Over the past three days, Ascension Seton Medical Center nurses have been making holiday desserts for a bake sale that was held in front of the hospital Saturday morning.
A number of nurses at the hospital have been unable to come into work after holding their second one-day strike on Wednesday.
"Ascension chose to lock us out for an additional three days, so we decided to stay busy,” said Lindsay Spinney, an Ascension ICU neonatal nurse.
Since they’ve been home, nurses traded their scrubs for aprons to bake holiday cookies, cakes and pies. All of the money raised through the sale will go toward buying patients essential items needed in the hospital.
"We have a complete lack of working I.V. pumps in the entire hospital, so nurses are often required to triage patients and decide who gets an I.V. pump and who does not,” Spinney said. “It's really unfortunate."
For months, nurses have asked Ascension Seton for better working conditions but have found little success.
"It's really embarrassing to be working and not be able to provide a gown for a patient or clean sheets or pillowcases,” Spinney said.
Spinney claims the hospital has more than enough money to help them but chooses not to, saying that while they were locked out of work from the strike, Ascension hired a full hospital staff of traveling nurses.
"It's really disappointing, and it just really continues to show that Ascension will choose profits over patients at any point in time,” Spinney said.
On Sunday morning, nurses were set to return for the first time since the strike. They said they are feeling optimistic about possible changes.
"We tend to make more progress after strikes,” Spinney said. "I'm hoping that it's an eye-opener for them."
The next bargaining meeting between nurses and Ascension is set for Dec. 14.