[ Maui Health System health care workers rallied at the corner of
Kaahumanu and Puunene avenues on Wednesday to call for fair wages that
will help recruit and retain much-needed staff, better work-life
balance and quality patient care.]
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HOSPITAL WORKERS SPOTLIGHT PAY, STAFFING WOES  
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Dakota Grossman
November 17, 2022
Maui News
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_ Maui Health System health care workers rallied at the corner of
Kaahumanu and Puunene avenues on Wednesday to call for fair wages that
will help recruit and retain much-needed staff, better work-life
balance and quality patient care. _

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KAHULUI — Maui Health System worker Emily Cantorna rallied at the
corner of Kaahumanu and Puunene avenues on Wednesday to call for fair
wages that will help recruit and retain much-needed staff, better
work-life balance and quality patient care.

Fronting the Kahului Shopping Center, roughly one mile away from Maui
Memorial Medical Center, the registered nurse stood alongside about
100 other health care workers and their families for two hours to wave
signs, advocate and garner attention to the issues ahead of final
negotiations.

“Working through the pandemic was tough, you know, we had a lot of
sick patients and unfortunately we don’t have the amount of staff to
safely care for them how we want to,” said Cantorna, a Baldwin High
School graduate who received her education from the University of
Hawaii Maui College nursing program.

The patient-to-nurse ratio on her floor at the hospital is usually
4-to-1, but lately the ratio has been 5-to-1 and sometimes Cantorna
has had six patients at once. Health care workers are feeling burnt
out, she said.

“We try to provide the best care for each patient, but of course, if
we had more staff, we could have more one-on-one time with our
patients,” she added. “It’s definitely a safety thing.”

According to a report by SimpleNursing, nurse pay has risen steadily
over the years to coincide with the general costs of goods and
services — there was a large rise in 2020, but then a slowdown in
2021.

Still, Hawaii nurses continue to earn the lowest salaries in the
nation when the high cost of living is factored in, according to the
report.

“I feel like people are living paycheck to paycheck, you know, and I
see those with family have two working people in the family and they
are still struggling. The cost of living is high,” said China
Kapuras, who started in security at Maui Memorial, then became an
admitting clerk, and is now in case management. “I understand how
important our nurses are, but now I understand how important
everybody’s role is.”

Born and raised on Maui, the Army veteran stood on Kaahumanu Avenue
supporting local workers and garnering the recognition that health
care industry employees deserve.

“I don’t care where you work in the hospital. It’s an awesome
feeling and we all put in the work,” Kapuras said. “We’re
dedicated, loyal, and we need to be compensated for that. We had fear
during COVID, but we stayed there to take care of the community, to
take care of each other.”

Kapuras and Cantorna are among the 900 Maui Health System employees on
Maui and Lanai represented by the United Nurses and Health Care
Employees of Hawaii. This union covers registered nurses; social
workers; physical and occupational therapists; speech/language
pathologists; MRI, imaging and mammography technicians; financial
counselors; admitting clerks; receptionists; and many more types of
workers.

Maui Health employees, along with the union, have been in negotiations
for a wage increase with Maui Health management and are entering a
final bargaining session today, representative and lead negotiator
Vanessa Salazar told The Maui News.

“Even just negotiate for higher wages to get the lower members a
better living wage and then really just help with recruitment and
retention to help with patient care at the hospital, trying to keep
people from leaving Maui to work at other places,” Salazar said
late Wednesday afternoon while passing out rally signage. “Trying
to keep our people here … They’re super, super burnt out.”

Tara Cole, human resources director for Maui Health, said in a
statement Wednesday night that negotiations “have been going well
and we appreciate our professional, collaborative relationship with
our union partners.”

“We are working on a fair, equitable agreement that will hopefully
be resolved soon,” Cole said.

Maui Health said that the team has been working on recruiting health
care professionals through ongoing job fairs, advertising and other
marketing efforts, as well as building partnerships with local
schools.

There have also been training programs in-house to help current
employees advance their careers or earn specialty positions by
providing them with training for advanced clinical skills, Maui Health
said.

However, recruiting health care professionals is an “ongoing
industry challenge” as the hospital continues to try to hire and
retain local providers to care for Maui residents and visitors.

The United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii is part of the
United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care
Professionals, which together represents more than 32,000 registered
nurses and health care professionals in California and Hawaii. The
country’s urgent shortage of nurses has reached “catastrophic
proportions” and hospitals have increased their demands for travel
nurses, which is acting like a Band-Aid to the issue, according to the
union’s website.

“The solutions to these complex issues will take collaboration with
colleagues throughout the health care industry and the state, with the
goal to find a sustainable pathway for stability in the
industry,” Maui Health said in a statement. “Even prior to the
pandemic, Hawaii had a significant deficit of health care
professionals. The pandemic has only exacerbated this shortage.”

Although Hawaii pays the second-highest health care worker salaries in
the country, Maui Health acknowledged the high cost of living creates
a barrier for recruiting and retaining employees.

A nationwide survey by the joint union showed that 34 percent of
nurses say it’s very likely that they will quit their jobs by the
end of 2022, 1 million nurses will be eligible to retire in the next
10 to 15 years, 23 percent of nurses from the millennial generation
are actively looking for new opportunities and 80,000 applicants were
turned away by nursing schools.

“I’m a per diem nurse now because of it,” said Kathryn
Sandberg, who has worked at Maui Memorial since 2016. “I’m a
travel nurse now because of the wages, because of the way we’ve been
treated, so fortunately I can retain my position at the hospital with
a per diem status, which allows me to go elsewhere and work other
places other than Maui.”

Before joining the rally line, Sandberg said she has to travel
to “make ends meet.”

“I’d love to stay here to help the community, but that is the
decision I’ve had to make because of the lack of wages and the lack
of support,” she said.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at [email protected].

* United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii
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* United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care
Professionals
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