FORUM HEALTH Striking nurses start to feel financial pinch

Hospitals and other health- care facilities are begging for nurses, but most striking Forum workers just want temporary jobs.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Tina Horne is taking one day a week off from picket line duty to work as a temporary nurse for a medical staffing company.
Joyce Shaffer will go back to waitressing part time.
Roberta Fenskie has a per-diem nursing job, filling in when needed at another area hospital.
Three weeks into their strike against Forum Health, members of the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association say they're starting to feel the pinch in their pocketbooks.
Many of the union's 771 registered nurse members are looking for temporary work, said Arlene Nagy, a member of the YGDNA board and its negotiating team.
So far, she said, the long list of permanent job openings posted on the wall of the union's strike headquarters on Gypsy Lane isn't attracting much serious interest.
"Our nurses want to go back to the hospital and our patients, so most of them aren't looking for something permanent," said Nagy, a 40-year Forum veteran. "I'd say the majority want something temporary to help them pay the bills. They don't intend to cross that picket line."
No insurance: Forum discontinued health insurance benefits for YGDNA members when they walked out May 1, and the nurses receive no strike benefits. Nagy said many of the striking nurses are paying for their own health benefits during the strike, a right provided under the federal COBRA law.
Forum officials are continuing to operate Northside Medical Center, Tod Children's Hospital and Beeghly Medical Park with the help of 270 replacement nurses bused in from out of state. Forum's Trumbull County facilities and its Austintown Medical Center are not affected by the walkout.
Fenskie, a 22-year veteran of Northside Medical Center, said she loves her job as a surgical nurse because it has more of the personalized, "hand-holding" kind of nursing care than other departments. She's eager to go back to the work and to co-workers in the department who have become a second family to her.
But the Austintown resident said she decided to attend some of the nursing career fairs offered by other area hospitals to look for an interim position to help with her family's expenses. She and her husband have two children at home, with her job providing the health benefits, and Fenskie's mother also lives with them.
The per diem job she found with another local hospital will give her a chance to continue her surgical nursing on a part-time basis for now, and Fenskie has offered to continue filling in there two days a month when the walkout ends.
"They did me a favor by hiring me when they knew I just needed something temporary, so I feel I owe it to them," she said.
Change is difficult: Shaffer, a Poland resident who has been a Forum nurse for 18 years, said she decided it would be easier to go back to waitressing than to learn the ropes of a new nursing position. She said she's eager to return to her post as a recovery room nurse at Northside, but a short-term waitressing job will provide living expenses she needs for now.
"I'm committed to that hospital. My friends, my family, my neighbors are there," Shaffer said. "When the strike is over, I'll go back."
Horne said she's been filling in as an agency nurse for Shamrock Medical Staffing in Cortland for several years, usually working an occasional day as an intensive care nurse. Horne, of Newton Falls, has been a cardiac lab nurse at Northside for 15 years, but she likes to keep her ICU skills honed as well.
"The job also comes in handy whenever our contract comes up," she added.
Opportunities: While union officials say they know only a few striking nurses who are seriously investigating a permanent move from Forum Health, they acknowledge there are plenty of job opportunities for registered nurses.
Classified sections in The Vindicator and other area newspapers are peppered with advertisements seeking nurses, and the YGDNA has posted many of the ads on a bulletin board at its strike headquarters.
Pittsburgh-based UPMC Health System hasn't changed its advertising strategy because of the Forum strike, but spokeswoman Melanie Heuston said the company is conducting a "huge" recruitment and retention campaign for nurses, pharmacists and other medical personnel.
UPMC has been getting calls from Forum nurses looking into permanent employment, Heuston said, and the Pennsylvania office responsible for nursing licenses has been getting as many as 10 calls a day from Forum nurses interested in acquiring Pennsylvania credentials. She could not say whether any have accepted positions at UPMC.
Heuston said UPMC needs more registered nurses, not only to replace those who leave or retire but also because it is expanding and needs more staff. As hiring incentives, the chain pays its employees a $1,000 recruitment bonus when they bring in a new nurse who stays at least a year, and new nursing graduates can be eligible for $4,000 in tuition repayment.
New beginning: Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Retirement Homes based in Austintown has received at least 20 calls from striking Forum nurses looking for work since the YGDNA walkout began, said Jody Roman, human resources director.
She said it was just a coincidence, though, that the company's recent help-wanted ad offers job hunters "a new beginning." The ad was written long before the strike started, and Shepherd hasn't changed its advertising and recruitment campaign.
In fact, Roman said Shepherd has a low turnover in its nursing staff -- about 10 percent a year -- and is fully staffed for registered nurses now. The company is not encouraging the striking nurses to apply because officials know they will likely return to Forum when the walkout ends, she said.
Like UPMC, Shepherd of the Valley offers its employees a bonus when they successfully recruit a new worker. "My experience is that it's better to reward the current employees instead of giving a sign-on bonus to new employees," Roman said.
Salem Community Hospital is keeping its nursing staff numbers up by offering sign-on bonuses for nurses in certain specialty departments and encouraging employee referrals, said spokeswoman Michele Hoffmeister. The hospital also has a partnership with Kent State University designed to bring in more new nursing graduates.
Hoffmeister said Salem Community didn't change its recruiting strategies because of the strike and, in fact, has decided not to consider any Forum nurses for full- or part-time positions until the walkout is settled.
The Mount Carmel hospital chain in Columbus began advertising for nurses and other medical personnel in the Mahoning Valley shortly before the Forum walkout, a spokesman said, and decided to repeat the ads when officials learned about the strike.
Besides offering a "very competitive" sign-on bonus of more than $1,000, he said, the Mount Carmel hospitals offer new hires immediate medical and dental insurance with no waiting period, on-site day care at some locations and tuition assistance.
"I don't know if I'd say we have a nursing shortage, but everybody's looking," he said. "The strike could work to our advantage."
vinarsky@vindy.com