STANFORD >> Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital canceled appointments, postponed surgeries and sent chemotherapy patients to sister hospitals as thousands of nurses walked off the job Monday to strike for better wages and working conditions, forcing hundreds of traveling nurses to scramble to meet patient demand.

After treating patients without a contract since the end of March, 5,000 nurses lined streets near Stanford Hospital raucously picketing and urging medical center officials to deliver an agreement ahead of negotiations scheduled forthis morning.

Holding signs that read “Stanford hates caregivers” and shouting slogans like “Shame on Stanford” as drivers blared their car horns in support, nurses appeared more than ready to pressure Stanford indefinitely until a “reasonable” contract is reached.

Kimberley Reed, a cardiacintensive care unit nurse on the picket line, said nurses have left her department to work at other hospitals with better staffing levels. Short-staffing has exacerbated burnout among nurses, she said, adding that some have worked 14 straight 12-hour shifts.“We’re doing this because we want to provide safe care and we want the safety for our patients,” Reed said. “We are tired of the status quo. They can say all they want, but we’re saying enough is enough.”

But the strike hasn’t stopped Stanford in its tracks. Jesus Cepero, chief nursing officer for Stanford Children’s Health, said the medical center has employed more than 2,000 nurses from across the country to deal with the strike. Traveling nurses have been in training for the past three days off-site in anticipation of Monday’s mass walkout, Cepero said, and are adjusting to their new work environment.

Some patients who went to the hospital Monday for appointments said the strike is creating “small inefficiencies” they just don’t expect or want as part of their experience seeking care from Stanford Hospital.

Expectant mother Esmeralda Marin — who rushed to Stanford Hospital after experiencing pain in her womb just weeks before her daughter is due — said she was taken to the wrong unit by a traveling nurse still learning the layout of the hospital. Marin, 44, a Spanish speaker, also had to wait a little longer than she expected to find a Spanish-speaking nurse to help her navigate her visit.

“It’s overall normal, but there were a lot of different nurses coming up to me and looking at my chart and vitals screen to check, which was unexpected,” Marin said. “We asked a man to help us get to our unit, but he took us to the wrong place. It’s a little frustrating.”

Jacob Martinez, 30, said the strike has caused him and his family “unneeded stress” during the delivery of his new baby son over the weekend.

“There’s a learning curve for the nurses, and it’s definitely less efficient,” Martinez said. “Obviously as a patient, you really feel for the nurses. I wish (Stanford) had just resolved this at the negotiating table.”

Stanford has been in negotiations with the Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement— the union that represents nurses at Stanford and Packard — since labor contracts covering 5,000 nurses expired March 31. But negotiations stalled. The strike, authorized by about 93% of eligible nurses, marks the first for CRONA in more than 20 years.

In an email Sunday evening, medical center representatives said the strike is “a serious event that is disruptive to our patients, families, and colleagues” and noted that it would continue trying to reach a contract but would only pay for striking staff health coverage through COBRA.

“Our hospitals’ employer-paid premiums for health benefits are only provided to employees who are actively engaged in working for the hospitals,” they added.

“We have worked diligently to reach a mutually acceptable contract agreement and have made meaningful progress at the bargaining table so far,” said Cepero and Dale Beatty, Stanford Health Care chief nurse executive and vice president of patient care services.

Stanford nurses are joining a growing movement of other U.S. health care workers who have bemoaned the shortage of staffing and long, stressful work hours that came to a head during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, 8,000 nurses at 18 Sutter Health facilities staged a one-day strike to call for better staffing after working under an expired contract for 10 months. Health care strikes have also taken place in New York, Massachusetts, Oregon, Alabama and Montana. Last November, Kaiser narrowly averted a strike of 50,000 health care workers.

Nurses say profits have spiked at Stanford and other health systems, even during the ongoing pandemic, giving the hospital system no excuse not to pay their nurses more.

Stanford nurses are seeking annual wage increases of 7% for each of the next two years and 6% in the final year of their contract, with $3,000 bonuses and ongoing mental health counseling.

Stanford is offering wage increases — 5%, 4% and 3%, plus ratification and retention bonuses. In the first year, annual base salaries for entry level nurses would start at $143,000 and climb to $211,500 for nurses at the top of the pay scale.

To see traveling nurses being offered higher salaries while strikers worry about their health insurance coverage was “infuriating” to Eileen Pachkofsky, a nurse at Lucile Packard for 16 years and one of the vice presidents for CRONA who was on the picket line Monday.

“Nurses are leaving the profession because it’s taking a mental toll on us,” Pachkofsky said. “We’ve been here for a long time, and when we see other people are making more than us, it just shows that Stanford doesn’t care and this is how they treat their employees. To us, it just shows us, ‘Why are we putting our lives out there, taking time away from our families, making all these sacrifices?’ It’s a slap in the face that we don’t get what we deserve.”