Opinion: Washington Hospital Center nurses deserve more from management

Nurses dedicate our lives to our patients, staffing hospitals 24/7, 365 days a year. The time we spend caring for our patients and their families are some of the most difficult but rewarding hours of our lives. We see patients through every stage of life, from birth to death, and everything in between. We celebrate with our patients when they get better and are able to go home, and we cry with their families when our patients don’t make it out of the hospital. 

Nurses are consistently ranked as one of the most valued and trusted professions, despite efforts to devalue us. Our hospital administrators have failed to stand up for us or treat us with the respect that reflects the importance of our work.

These past months, National Nurses United, representing 2200 nurses, has been engaged in bargaining for a new contract with Medstar Washington Hospital Center. We allege that in the middle of contract bargaining for fair wage increases for staff, we've discovered that nursing managers have been stealing wages from emergency department nurses for months, illegally changing timecards to reflect lunch breaks that nurses weren't able to take. 

In light of this discovery, we filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General outlining our allegations and asking them to investigate this widespread wage theft. That nurses cannot consistently take their legally protected 30 minute breaks in a 12-hour shift reflects the reality that we are understaffed and overworked, leading to burnout that causes nurses to leave the field. 

A survey of 1600 NNU members at Washington Hospital Center in October 2025 showed that nearly half of the nurses employed by the hospital had worked off the clock in the last six months. We allege that off-the-clock work is not just known about by management, but is actively encouraged. Some managers tell their employees to clock out before finishing their charting, while others encourage brand new nurses to come to work early to read up on patients.

A hospital spokesperson said in a statement that Medstar is committed to paying associates fairly, that it has issued corrected paychecks, and is reviewing our further concerns. But we look forward to a full investigation from the Office of the Attorney General.

Nurses want to care for our patients, but we also deserve to be fairly compensated for the work we do. We deserve to be able to afford to live in the city, as we care for our community members and neighbors. We fight for our patients every day, but our hospital doesn’t fight for us.

If our hospital administration values us, they’ll show us through action. They'll show us through meaningful wage increases that allow nurses to afford living in this city. They’ll show us that they value our lives by improving security measures before any staff member, patient, or family member is harmed by weapons brought into the hospital. They’ll show us that we are valued beyond being “revenue generators” by protecting our jobs from automation and AI nursing.  They will stop engaging in wage theft, and they will treat us with respect. 

Lily Epstein is a BSN and RN.