Approximately 12,000 Minnesota nurses are expected to walk off the job Thursday morning at 14 Minneapolis-St. Paul hospitals. The 24-hour strike scheduled for 7 a.m. over staffing, pay and benefits, is set to go down as the biggest in U.S. nursing history. Hospitals not involved in the dispute have geared up for an influx of patients, and many of the affected hospitals have postponed medical procedures, beefed up security, and asked other employees to take extra shifts. They say emergency rooms and labor-and-delivery departments will be fully staffed. But the hospitals have been forced to fly in thousands of nurses to work for just one day, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
