A nurse at UPMC Altoona was illegally retaliated against and fired after she spoke to local media about staffing shortages and working conditions, according to a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board.

UPMC on Friday defended its actions, saying that the nurse in question was a contractor on temporary assignment.

The case was based on charges filed by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania labor union on behalf of Dina Norris, a nurse at UPMC Altoona who was fired on May 31, 2022. The firing came about a week after she spoke with local TV stations about difficult working conditions for nurses at the hospital.

A spokesperson for SEIU Healthcare said this complaint calls into question the entire UPMC system — which is based in Pittsburgh and stretches across dozens of hospitals in multiple states — because the complaint mentions the UPMC system as a whole, where previous complaints only mentioned individual hospitals.

A hearing for the case is scheduled for July 10 in front of an administrative law judge to determine whether UPMC has violated the law as described in the NLRB complaint.

UPMC spokeswoman Gloria Kreps said the healthcare giant acted appropriately within Norris’ contract when she was let go.

“This individual was not a UPMC Altoona employee nor employed by any other UPMC entity at the time of these incidents, but an agency contractor on temporary assignment,” Kreps said. “We acted appropriately and followed the parameters of the agency agreement.”

Norris worked at UPMC Altoona through an agency. She said nurse-to-patient ratios had increased over the years at UPMC Altoona from five patients to one nurse in 2020 to eight to one by 2022. She said nurses were already struggling to adequately care for their patients under a lower nurse-to-patient ratio, but eight patients to every nurse is untenable.

“It is head spinning to take care of eight patients,” Norris said. “And it’s very hard to keep them safe.”

The issue came to a head on May 15, 2022, according to Norris. That day she was working as the charge nurse at UPMC Altoona’s ortho-neuro-trauma unit, where Norris and four other nurses already had seven patients each. Hospital management then gave each nurse another patient, Norris said.

Then, Norris and the group of nurses spoke to management and shared their concerns about not being able to safely treat the patients with such a high patient load.

She said that management responded by threatening to report the nurses to a state nursing board for patient neglect.

On May 23, Norris spoke to the media about the staffing ratios. A week later, she was discharged by UMPC, according to the complaint. On June 9, UPMC refused to consider Norris for hire.

“It was shocking,” she said. “Then I received a ‘do not rehire’ notice, and that to me was a big slap in the face.”

SEIU Healthcare said that prior to her termination, Norris had received two Guardian Angel awards and a Daisy award for her patient care at UPMC Altoona.

Norris added her termination went against UPMC’s stated goals of balancing staff shortages, because she said it had just renewed her contract for three additional months and “there was definitely a need for me to stay there.”

UPMC, like most hospitals across the country, has struggled with staffing shortages since the start of the pandemic.

The large health care nonprofit has attempted to alleviate staffing shortages by investing $300 million in workforce initiatives like bonuses and loan repayment programs, but shortages have persisted.

Norris said she understands that solving shortages is a difficult and nuanced issue. But she believes the problems wouldn’t be as bad at UPMC if they treated “their current staff with respect.”

She said if UPMC management gets more involved and listens to the needs of nurses more, their reputation will improve and they will attract more people from the region to the nursing profession.

“They are trying to rebuild the reputation, but they really need people to work and they need staff,” she said. “I think if they show real respect, I think that will help.”

Norris said she felt the need to speak out in the media because nurses are taking a disproportionate weight at hospitals, and they need more support.

“This is a fight being fought for all nurses,” she said. “As nurses and licensed professionals, our patients are the number 1 priority. That is why we went into the profession in the first place. We need an organization that stands behind us.”

SEIU Healthcare believes that if the judge rules in favor of the labor board complaint, UPMC would most likely have to bring Norris back on with a new contract and pay lost wages.

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