Just two weeks after the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod voted to authorize a strike, Cape Cod Healthcare has agreed to a contract that would raise wages for visiting nurses.
According to a press release from Cape Cod Healthcare, the new contract means Cape Cod visiting nurses will have some of the highest wages in the state for home health agencies.
The VNA was seeking raises because they felt the low pay was a major reason that Cape Cod Healthcare was having trouble recruiting and retaining full-time nurses.
That's according to Allison Young, a registered nurse with the VNA of Cape Cod. Between December 2022 and today, the number of full-time nurses at the VNA of Cape Cod dropped from 91 to 60, Young said. The last time a full-time nurse was hired was September 2023.
Because of low staffing levels, Cape Cod Healthcare has to supplement its workforce with part-time and traveling nurses, Young said.
"Unfortunately, with the way that it is managed, if you will, the patients don't have the continuity because of not having the full time staff that we truly need to be hiring," she said.
Young said the higher pay is progress, but less than what the nurses wanted.
“They finally agreed to a more reasonable increase, but it is not what we were asking for, and that was the reason why we only agreed to a one-year contract,” she said. “So we will go back to the table in another year.”
Cape Cod Healthcare wrote in an email to CAI that the company’s proposed wages for the second year are sufficient.
“These raises are among the highest in the state for home health agencies, and the proposed wages offered for the second year of the contract would sustain this leading position,” the email said.
Young has been with the VNA of Cape Cod for 30 years and has been on the negotiations team for about 10.
“If it was just about money, I would have left, because I could get a whole lot more money somewhere else,” she said. “But I obviously love what I do and I really care about the patients and the community.”
The negotiations went on for six months. The nurses were not seeing much progress, so on August 19, they voted unanimously to authorize a strike.
“We don't want a strike,” Young said. “But it was important that they heard that we were willing to strike, because they really weren't hearing where we were coming from.”
The VNA did not end up going on strike.
Cape Cod Healthcare says the demand for visiting nurses is up across the country, and healthcare organizations have faced staffing troubles since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The VNA of Cape Cod is represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
