RNs and health care workers strike at three Prime hospitals

Registered nurses and health care workers at three Prime Healthcare facilities held strikes during the same week in February, according to National Nurses United. The actions took place at West Anaheim Medical Center in Anaheim, California; Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada; and Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, California.

Nurses at West Anaheim Medical Center held a three-day strike starting Feb. 17. Nurses at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center held a one-day strike on Feb. 18. Registered nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center held a one-day strike on Feb. 19. The article identifies the workers as members of California Nurses Association, an affiliate of National Nurses United, and Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union, an affiliate of CNA.

The workers said they were urging management to invest more in nursing and health care staff and to agree to a contract that includes safe staffing and commitments to practices that help recruit and retain employees. The source does not report any management response to the strikes.

At Shasta Regional Medical Center, negotiations had been underway since August, the article says. At Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, nurses had been in negotiations since last summer. At West Anaheim Medical Center, registered nurses had been negotiating since February 2025. The article does not provide further details about the issues at each facility beyond the broader call for safe staffing and improved efforts to recruit and retain workers.

The article says CNA/CHEU represents 600 nurses and health care workers at Shasta Regional Medical Center. NNOC/NNU represents 350 nurses at Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center. CNA represents more than 360 nurses at West Anaheim Medical Center. No additional membership figures or staffing totals are reported in the source.

Liz Rivera, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at West Anaheim, said high turnover and short staffing have a negative effect on safe patient care. In the quote included in the article, she said the nurses were striking because every patient deserves an experienced RN, not a nurse who is overwhelmed and covering too many patients.

The strikes were described as taking place during the same week in February, but the source does not report the length of any broader labor dispute beyond the strike dates and the negotiation timelines listed for each hospital. It also does not say whether the strikes were coordinated in advance beyond occurring within the same week.

Prime Healthcare facilities are the setting for all three actions, but the article does not provide additional background on the company or on any separate contract terms being discussed. The focus of the report is the strike activity, the workers’ staffing-related concerns, and the length of negotiations already underway at the three hospitals.

The National Nurses United article places the actions in the context of ongoing bargaining and the workers’ push for changes they say would support safer patient care and better staffing stability. No settlement, agreement, or end to the disputes is reported in the source.

The article appears in National Nurse magazine’s April, May and June 2026 issue, and it was submitted by ADonahue. The source date shown on the page is May 27, 2026. No further publication details are provided in the article text itself.

In short, the report says nurses and health care workers at the three hospitals struck over concerns tied to staffing, turnover and the need for employers to invest in the workforce. The workers’ demands centered on contracts that would support safe staffing and practices aimed at recruiting and retaining staff, while the source gives limited information about the bargaining status beyond the timelines already reported.