Doctors in the Providence Healthcare System Go on Strike Today

Collective Action with Nurses and Other Clinicians

I came across Portland, Oregon-based Dr. Jennifer Lincoln’s Instagram feed this week where she has been posting about the build-up to a strike involving hospitalists, nurses, midwives, and APP’s at 8 Providence system hospitals. Over the last decade as I have sought solutions for terms of practice that support physician wellbeing and the capacity to individualize practices, what has been most overwhelming to me is the fear and paralysis doctors have about challenging industrial healthcare. In my residency, despite my general acknowledgment of the importance of unions for representing the interests of workers, I voted against unionizing because it conflicted with the core of my promise to patients: to be there no matter what. I also did not want to equate my calling with shift work. I found a 2015 French film Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor offered a promising approach to collective bargaining for physicians and nurses just when I was beginning to focus on ways to restructure practice. The strike staged in the film had physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff showing up to care for patients—as we always do—but refusing to complete any billing-related paperwork. Only documentation necessary for continuity of patient care was completed. This seemed like a dream come true and a very powerful strategy.

I will be watching with great interest how things proceed in Oregon. We can be sure Providence healthcare executives will do everything in their power to terminate the employment of striking physicians. In all likelihood, they will seek to destroy the careers of doctors like vocal Jennifer Lincoln. These are the realities of the corporate playbook. So many doctors have told me in response to my calls for physicians to realize and manifest the power we have that they are too afraid of the consequences. I will also be watching to see what physicians may be willing to take the jobs of striking physicians because all too often, we are our own worst enemies. It is crucial that this group of physicians succeed in negotiating better terms of practice for themselves and allied staff. Likewise, if we work together, we can find creative solutions for collective action like those portrayed in Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor that allow us to remain true to our calling while saying NO to extractive, transactional corporate healthcare.

For more information about the strike, details are available at the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) website.