Nurses Say They Broke Strike to Help Shooting Victims but Were Turned Away, Ran to Scene

All images courtesy of: Crystal Dhooghe, BSN, RN, Genesys ER nurse on the strike line

"Plain and simple, it’s just about doing the right thing," says Genesys ER nurse Paige Lamb. "It’s about being there for each other as human beings, regardless of what is going on around us."

As an ER nurse for over six years at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan, Paige Lamb is accustomed to emergency situations. But as Lamb watched smoke billow up into the clouds on Sunday, September 28, 2025, she knew something was terribly wrong. 

Lamb and her fellow Teamsters Local 332 union nurses at Genesys have been on strike since  September 1, 2025, advocating for improved patient-staff ratios. The hospital, which is owned by Henry Ford Hospital, had failed to reach an accepted agreement with the nurses' union, resulting in around 700 nurses joining the strike. 

Lamb was on the picket line when the first shots rang out down the road at the Grand Blanc Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A lone gunman had intentionally driven his truck into the church, setting it on fire, and opened fire on churchgoers. As multiple ambulances raced past the nurses on the strike line with lights and sirens into the hospital, they grew increasingly more concerned that there could be many more victims. 

She tells Nurse.org that she and her fellow nurses quickly realized it was a "Code Black" (the hospital's term for a mass casualty situation) and called their union president to tell them they thought they should go in to help. 

"He said he wasn’t sure how it would affect the strike, but said there is a time and place for everything and to do what we thought was right," Lamb remembers.

Doing What's Right

In Lamb's mind, along with the other handful of nurses who headed immediately to the hospital, the right thing to do was to see how they could help in the ED. Upon arriving, Lamb and a handful of her fellow ER nurses were let into the hospital by security and welcomed by the ER manager, whom Lamb says was "so happy" to see them. 

The nurses who crossed the line to go into help immediately went in separate directions to help where they could, Lamb describes, checking on all the resus and trauma bays, pulling stretchers and cords, and cleaning trauma bays to prepare for the next patient. Lamb also checked on other patients in the department to see if they needed anything before more critical patients were brought in. 

All in all, the nurse explains that she and her fellow striking nurses were only in the ED for about 10-15 minutes before another striking nurse informed her that the administration had asked them to leave. Lamb says she "understands" why the administration asked them to leave, and says everyone treated them kindly. 

Hospital Statement

Henry Ford released a statement saying that no strike nurses were needed that day because they had no access to any of the hospital's systems, including medications, the hospital was already fully-staffed, and excess people would have "the potential to endanger or compromise the ongoing care."

Henry Ford’s statement: 

“When the Teamsters gave notice that they planned to strike indefinitely, we made arrangements to care for the community in every circumstance. Henry Ford Genesys Hospital is fully staffed with experienced caregivers and able to care for all our patients, including those injured in the shooting and fire at the nearby church.

• For security and patient privacy purposes, striking team members do not have access to our systems, including electronic medical records, nor are they able to access medications. That would make it impossible to provide patient care.
• Because of the indefinite strike, we’d already made alternative staffing arrangements. Henry Ford Genesys Hospital was appropriately staffed Sunday and team members were able to care for the patients from the church tragedy without additional help. 
• Bringing too many team members into a fluid, multi-casualty emergency situation has the potential to endanger or compromise the ongoing care.
• We look forward to continuing negotiations but respectfully ask we do not use the tragedy that occurred in our community as a bargaining tool.” 

At the Crime Scene

While they couldn't be of service in the hospital, Lamb says one of the EMS crew then asked the nurses to go directly to the scene to help instead. Lamb says she didn't hesitate for a second or fear for her safety in making a decision. 

"It was just wanting to help where we could, regardless of what could happen," Lamb notes. "We would deal with it when and if it happens." 

Crystal Dhooghe, BSN, RN, another Genesys ER nurse, says the nurses who responded that day did "what any nurse would do." 

"At the time, we were not sure how severe those casualties would be, nor how many," she notes. "I pray for all of the families at the LDS church. It was a difficult time as a healthcare provider to be 'sidelined,' but I'm thankful for the people in the hospital who did all that they could do." 

With care already arranged for her 11-year-old daughter, who had been on the picket line with her, along with her mother, also an ER nurse at Genesys, Lamb was ready to go. The road was blocked off, so the nurses had to run from the end of the road all the way down to the church. 

"The scene was crazy," Lamb describes. "It was very sad to see, kids, the elderly, and adults all crying, lying, standing, some with blood on their clothes. When I’d ask about blood, they would say it wasn’t theirs and they were fine."

Lamb and her fellow striking nurses checked on all of the victims, finding only minor medical issues, as the most critical patients had already been sent to the hospital. They passed out water, checked vitals, and assisted walking survivors to the buses transporting people off the scene to the nearby movie theater. 

"We were there medically for them, but it was a lot of just emotional support," Lamb notes. 

Lamb says that EMS expressed their gratitude that the nurses were willing to come lend a helping hand, and that many people participated in supporting the victims and their families that day. 

"There was definitely an amazing response from the entire community. Things were bad, horrible, and should have never happened. But it could have been so much worse, too." 

Lamb added that she doesn't see herself as a hero that day, but does see the many people, civilians, and community members who joined together to help the victims as true heroes. 

"The tragedy affected people that I know personally," she says. "People who are amazing human beings and their families. They were in the church that day. They helped save so many people that day and are heroes for that."

The Strike Situation

The nursing union's official position is that the strike happened to advocate for "safe nurse to patient ratios, better working conditions and a fair contract," while Henry Ford's position is that the staffing ratios in the proposed new contract did not change, and that "contractually mandated ratios do not guarantee consistent staffing."

Lamb tells Nurse.org that there are "a lot of factors" that have gone into the strike, and that it "has been a long time coming." 

She explains that when she was hired at Genesys before COVID, "things were great," and that people would purposefully come to work at Genesys because of the safe ratios and because it was "a good place to work." 

"Things were good," she notes. "We never went over grid. Ever. But slowly over time, especially with COVID, following our contract went out the window."

While the nurses assumed the changes were temporary because of COVID, Lamb says they "never got better." 

Lamb adds that morale went down, management changed, and that the contract was not followed, specifically in the mandate on nurse-to-patient ratios. She says that the ratios especially affected the care nurses were able to give. 

"When your ratios are too high, you can not give the care that you want and need to give," she explains. "You go home after a shift feeling guilty that you could barely keep your head above water. You feel bad that patients are the ones being affected and deserve better. You always want to do more."

Along with the short staffing affecting patient care, Lamb notes that it also began to affect staff retention. She points out that with other hospitals in the area paying higher rates for nurses, many nurses would move on to other places rather than stay and work consistently short-staffed at Genesys. 

"I always treat my patients like a family member or friend," Lamb says. "And it hurts to not have the time or resources."

Dhooghe echoes Lamb's claims that many of the problems arose following COVID. 

"Nurses have been expected to do more with less," Dhooghe says. "These hospitals are really treating humans like it's an assembly line. Nurses have been stripped of adequate breaks, given an unsafe number of patients to take care of, and they know we will do it anyway because we care so much about what we do. It's just not fair, and we are finally putting our foot down." 

The Hospital's Position

Henry Ford has accused nurses of abusing the prior contract, which they say incentivized "coordinated call-offs": 

"Under the expired contract, Teamsters were eligible for premium pay based on the number of patients they care for each day. The clause incentivizes coordinated call-offs, where Teamsters take turns calling off scheduled shifts so that those who show up can get premium pay. This is not in the best interest of patients or other team members. This is one of the aspects of the contract that we have been negotiating."

Lamb calls the accusations of nurses calling off purposefully for money or to strategically create short staffing scenarios "100% not true." She explains that the expired contract did have two different stipulations for short-staffing pay, but points out that short-staffing pay should not even be written into the contract if the hospital was consistently staffed appropriately.

Regardless, she broke down the previous nurses' contract for short-staffing:

• One was a bonus of $160 for every 4 hours a nurse picked up over their full-time schedule. However, the bonus only applied under strict circumstances. For instance, nurses who didn't complete the full 4 hours, nurses who called out that same week, or had been tardy at all could not receive it. 
• In the second scenario, the hospital agreed to pay only nurses the $160/4 hour bonus on units that were deemed short-staffed when working short-staffed. However, the hospital got to decide which unit was designated short-staffed, and then the bonus was divided among all the nurses working that shift. In a scenario of 7 nurses working instead of the required 10, for example, each nurse would only receive around $68 total for working short-staffed. 
• There were also other stipulations to the bonus in the second scenario. For instance, Lamb claims that the hospital counted nurses in training who can't take assignments into their staffing ratio, and added the requirement that if any nurse called off, they were ineligible for the bonus. 

Lamb says in both situations, the money often simply wasn't "worth it," despite what the hospital administration claims. 

"We already work full time," she adds. "We don’t want to continue working over our full-time year after year. That is hospital propaganda to try and make it look like we are just being greedy."

Dhooghe also backs up Lamb's claim, adding that it was required to have 30% of holes in the schedule for a nurse to receive a short-staffing bonus, but callouts were exempt from being calculated to reach that 30% number, so coordinated callouts would actually hurt, not help nurses. Additionally, Dhooghe says that no compensation was given to nurses over their patient-nurse ratios. 

"When I was over ratio in the ER with a 6:1 ratio of critical patients, I was not getting any incentives," Dhooghe says. "It was my nursing license and patient safety on the line. This also applied to nurses on the floor who were forced to go 11:1 at some points." 

Strike at a Standstill

Currently, the strike is at a bit of a standstill. 

Henry Ford continues to allege that nurses and other members of the Teamsters union of calling off excessively and intentionally, while Lamb and her fellow striking nurses insist the strike is solely focused on safer staffing ratios. 

"We all just want the best for our patients," Lamb says. "None of us wants to be out here on the strike line, but at some point, you have to put your foot down and say enough is enough. Someone has to stand up for what is right. Everything we are doing is for our community. If we didn’t care about our patients, we wouldn’t be striking right now." 

She says that many nurses, herself included, are currently without health insurance, with some working second jobs to make ends meet, but are committed to seeing the strike through. 

She does hope that the hospital and union can do what's best for the community and patients and come to an agreement on a "fair contract," and adds that she has no regrets about trying to help in the wake of a tragedy at her hospital. 

"Plain and simple, it’s just about doing the right thing," says Lamb. "It’s about being there for each other as human beings, regardless of what is going on around us."

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