Saturday was Kim Paradis’ last shift at Fort Kent’s Northern Maine Medical Center after working for 24 years at the hospital.
The emergency department registered nurse said she is among a growing number of staff who no longer recognize the hospital they had loved. In the last month and a half, six nurses – five full-time and one per diem – will have left the 13-nurse unit, she said.
“Communication was non-existent between bedside nurses and management administration. We had no say, not even a voice to talk about anything,” she said Thursday. “Our manager was no longer our manager, and we were never told why when she was gone. The only time administration talked to us was because there was going to be a negative outcome for us.”
Despite the union and management ratifying the long-negotiated three-year union contract in May, the six emergency department registered nurses resigned starting in September. Their resignations were first reported by The Maine Monitor.
Represented by the Maine State Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee, they resigned for multiple reasons, hospital spokeswoman Pam Sime said Thursday.
Two RN’s left for promotional opportunities into leadership positions at other facilities, one left to become a travel RN, one left to move out of state, one was a per diem RN used intermittently as needed, three of these RN’s asked to remain in a per diem status and/or applied for other positions within the hospital, she said.
“The ER remains staffed with fully qualified staff including RNs,” Sime added.
The nurses bargaining unit and hospital administrators have been battling over issues for the past two years at both the Fort Kent facility and Houlton Regional Hospital, which fall under the same management team. As contract negotiations appeared to drag on, especially related to emergency department staffing and patient safety concerns, several nurses expressed frustrations with leadership during multiple strikes and other public actions.
The hospital’s unionized nurses voted in January to re-certify their union formed in 2024, rejecting an NMMC management-backed attempt to dissolve their union. In a February letter to management, the nurses expressed their concerns.
“Over the past two years, you have no doubt heard about the conflict that has grown between the hospital and us,” they wrote. “We want you to know that we never asked for this fight. The initiative to organize our union was to protect ourselves and our patients, not to punish any individuals or the hospital as a whole.”
The critical access 25-bed hospital’s emergency department treats approximately 7,000 patients annually, averaging 19 patient visits per day. The issues for the nurses who left involved what they saw as the hospital’s lack of concern for patients and staff, Paradis said, adding that they were also concerned about the hospital’s decision to no longer staff a clerk for the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. night shift.
On average, the hospital treats one to two patients during this time period and without the clerk, there are still two registered nurses, one physician and a security guard working, according to Sime.
The hospital regularly monitors patient volumes, quality indicators, and patient experience measures to ensure the emergency department continues to meet the healthcare needs of the community, she said.
When there are unexpected staffing shortages, the hospital hires experienced travel registered nurses to maintain coverage while recruiting qualified staff, Sime said.
According to Paradis, the discontent started shortly after CEO Jeff Zewe came to the northern Maine hospital.
“We filed to unionize and things just got worse after that,” she said.
Paradis was one of the people on the bargaining committee and she became a target of management, she said.
“It just all went down after that and it wasn’t about the patients anymore,” she said. “As much as a nurse I wanted it to be because that was the whole reason I became a nurse was to help people in my community. The environment was no longer conducive to that. I just couldn’t work with that anymore. It wasn’t going to be OK.”
