EMMC breaks ground on new housing facility At Cascade Park, disgruntled nurses protest hospital’s ‘poor’ commitment

BANGOR – Recruiting and retaining qualified medical personnel was a hot topic at Eastern Maine Medical Center on Thursday. Hospital officials gathered at midday to ceremonially break ground for a new dormitory to attract medical students – and, longterm, more doctors – while, later in the afternoon, nurses rallied in protest of stalled contract negotiations.

The new 3,800-square-foot residence will provide pleasant quarters for medical students who come to EMMC for clinical experience, according to Norman Ledwin, president and CEO of Eastern Maine Healthcare, the hospital’s corporate parent.

“This facility will be just great compared to where [the students] are now,” Ledwin said at the groundbreaking, referring to the dowdy rooms in an old section of the hospital where students now are quartered. Some students stay in inexpensive area motels, as well.

With a price tag of about $500,000 – all raised through private sources – the new dormitory will be located just off the main hospital campus on Spruce Street and will house 16 students in private bedrooms. Students will share common rooms, bathrooms and a central kitchen. The facility is expected to be ready in the spring of 2005.

Students who appreciate their overall experience in Bangor are more likely to return to the area after they graduate, Ledwin said. Some will participate in the three-year family-practice residency program offered at EMMC, and others will return to set up in private practice, he predicted.

Representatives of the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford also attended the Thursday groundbreaking. The two schools provide the majority of students to EMMC’s teaching program, and both have donated to the fund-raising campaign for the new residence.

Dr. Amy Kuhlik, dean of students at Tufts medical school, said students come to Bangor to be immersed in the specialty areas of pediatrics, psychiatry and family medicine. They know they’ll get a “rare educational experience” in Bangor, she said, but their living facilities have been “very poor” – including a brief infestation of bats.

“Students these days – they like their creature comforts,” Kuhlik said. A comfortable and convenient residence will make EMMC an even more attractive choice for Tufts students who come for 6-week stays year-round, she said.

Dr. Boyd Buser, associate dean for clinical affairs at the UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine, said 10 or 12 students each year opt to come to Bangor for a full year of hands-on learning in a broad range of specialty areas. The new dormitory is “a testament to EMMC’s commitment to its educational program,” Buser said.

But at an afternoon rally just down the street, registered nurses criticized the hospital’s lack of commitment to its nurses and the safety of its patients. With their current contract due to expire at the end of September, about 35 nurses and their supporters gathered at Cascade Park to protest proposed changes in their health insurance benefits and to pressure the hospital to improve nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, raise wages and change disciplinary procedures.

Judy Brown, president of the hospital’s unit of the Maine State Nurses Association said EMMC’s ongoing investment in new buildings and other infrastructure improvements shouldn’t draw attention away from the need to recruit and retain good bedside nurses.

“They’ve got $90 million in capitol expenditures planned,” she said. “It seems like they value their structures more than their nurses.

“Anything that affects wages and benefits makes nurses look twice when they’re deciding where they want to work,” Brown said. If EMMC doesn’t offer a competitive package, nurses will go elsewhere, worsening already difficult working conditions and jeopardizing patient safety, she said.

Nurses at the rally said they are working too many hours and taking care of too many patients. One nurse said she routinely works two or three double shifts a week. “I’m young and healthy, but it’s still really hard for me to pull a double,” she said, adding that older nurses are even less able to handle such expectations.

When nurses work long hours or assume responsibility for too many patients, medical errors and other problems are more likely, said Brown. “We need a good contract to keep our nurses working and to keep our patients safe,” Brown said.

Lorraine Rodgerson, R.N., vice president for nursing at EMMC, would not discuss the particulars of the negotiations but said she is confident an agreement will be reached before the September deadline. The hospital is “absolutely” committed to recruiting and retaining a full staff of qualified nurses, she said, as evidenced by a better-than-average wage and benefit package and routine nurse-to-patient staffing that runs higher than national recommendations.

Despite perennial contract disputes, EMMC’s nursing vacancies and turnover rates compare favorably to state and national figures, Rodgerson maintained, indicating a high degree of job satisfaction.