Friday, September 20th, 2019 marks the first nurses’ strike in Arizona as well as nurse strikes in California and Florida.

Throughout the years, nurses have struggled to not only receive the requested wage but the required respect from employers. Registered nurses staged a one-day strike against Tenet Health hospitals in Florida, California, and Arizona on Friday, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Tenet is a health are foundation that also supports the nurse’s purposes of the strike.

Yajaira Roman, a neurological intensive care nurse at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Florida, says that the nurses also want a lower patient-to-nurse ratio as to assure the safety of the patients and improve care. Tenet assigns eight patients per nurse the Palmetto’s surgical unit, twice the level research recommends.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee says the RNs are striking to motivate hospitals to apply more resources to nursing staff and patient care. They say it will improve the recruitment and retention of experienced RNs, along with ensuring patients are sufficiently taken care of.