All night long, Victoria Fitzhugh, a nurse at Backus Hospital, rushed between rooms caring for patients until 7 a.m., when she walked outside to stand on a picket line in the pouring rain.

Awake for more than 24 hours, she stood under an umbrella on a cold, dreary Tuesday morning with her fellow nurses, who are striking on Washington Street for 48 hours straight, demanding better patient care, workplace safety and safer staffing.

Nurses have since June been trying to resolve issues impacting patients and staff, citing unfair labor practices, according to a statement from the AFT Connecticut union.

Fitzhugh, who said she planned to be back on the picket line at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, began working at Backus just five months ago right in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she worked tirelessly on a floor where there was a COVID-19 outbreak, every day risking exposure to the coronavirus that causes the disease.

On Tuesday, Fitzhugh held a handwritten sign that said, “7 patients to 1 nurse is not safe, safe staffing saves lives.”

"Seven patients to one nurse should be the exception, not the rule. I got into nursing to be with people when they're at their lowest, to comfort them and support them, and I can't do that when I'm running from room to room," she said.

Fitzhugh said she worries about patient care when staff levels are low. "Delays in care and accidents happen when nurses are stretched so thin," she said." Accidents happen when you're rushed and in this job, accidents mean people's lives."

Safe staffing is one of the main requests nurses and their union have had while negotiating with the hospital and the Hartford HealthCare network, of which the hospital is a member. They’re asking for a lower patient-to-nurse ratio and better employee recruitment and retention.

“Recruit, retain, respect,” one nurse’s poster said.

The nurses were joined on the picket line during a rally by labor leaders, elected officials and patient care advocates, many of whom stepped up to the microphone to voice their support.

State Rep. Emmett Riley, D-Norwich, gave an emotional speech at the rally, his voice quivering with gratitude as he looked up toward a room in the hospital where he spent 26 days fighting for his life with severe diverticulitis in 2015.

At the rally Tuesday, he credited the nurses at Backus for saving him. Every day, he said nearly in tears, he drives by the hospital and waves at the building to thank the nurses.

Throughout the rally, which began at 9 a.m., speakers acknowledged that the nurses were fighting for better conditions while battling a pandemic.

Health care workers — often deemed ‘front-line workers’ — have seen an outpouring of support from residents posting lawn signs, or having moments of silence or hours of noise-making appreciation, and nurses have been called the heroes of the pandemic.

Now, some at the rally said, they aren’t being treated that way. The Backus Federation of Nurses posted lawn signs that said, “Don’t call us heroes and then treat us like zeros.”

Sal Luciano, president of the Connecticut American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said it was time to call for action, not just words of appreciation.

“Today we’re not asking for hearts on mailboxes, we’re not asking for hearts on windows, we’re not asking for banging pots and pans,” he said. “We’re asking that Hartford HealthCare treat nurses with the respect and dignity they have earned and deserve with all the sacrifices they’ve made and will make.”

National AFT President Randi Weingarten scolded Hartford Healthcare for delaying negotiations because of the pandemic. In a passionate speech, she asked, “Why the heck could this hospital not treat you fairly in the middle of a pandemic?”

“Give me a break,” she said. “There is no way Backus Hospital could deal with COVID-19 cases without you.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney commended the state’s flattening of the COVID-19 curve and said nurses had a big part in that success. And will continue to, he said.

“The second wave is coming, folks, and once again the nurses are going to be the ones that the call goes out to,” he said, thanking nurses for all they’ve done. He pledged his support to health care workers, as did state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague.

Nurses also were asking for rooms in the hospital where new mothers can pump breast milk, crying out, "let nurses nurse."

Donna Perry, a labor and delivery nurse who has been at Backus for 21 years, said that they have been working hard to advocate for working mothers who need more spaces to pump in the hospital, and break time to do so, but the hospital has not met their requests in negotiations.

"We're working 12-, 16-hour shifts, it's horrible for everyone but if you are a pumping mother, it's exceptionally difficult," she said.

In a statement, Backus Hospital President Donna Handley called the strike “heartbreaking.”

She said the hospital had made “every effort to avoid a strike” over the course of 23 bargaining sessions with federal mediators and said negotiations included discussions about personal protective equipment, staffing and additional accommodations for staff members who are breastfeeding.

In the statement, she also said the hospital has offered wage increases for all registered nurses over the three-year contract, amounting to 12.5% over three years, additional paid time off for 82% of nurses and a 2% reduction in health care premiums.

The statement also said the hospital was offering to retain daily overtime for nurses, additional overtime during the pandemic and a special COVID-19 response payment, and noted their job retention and avoidance of layoffs and furloughs.

Handley said the strike was “causing an unprecedented degree of disruption during an unprecedented health crisis” but noted the hospital would remain open and fully functional.

t.hartz@theday.com