HOULTON, Maine — Dozens of nurses at Houlton Regional Hospital walked off the job Tuesday, launching a two-day strike after more than a year of unsuccessful contract negotiations.

The nurses, carrying signs and chanting outside the hospital, said their primary concerns are a lack of proper staffing and subsequent reduction in quality of care for patients.

“We’re out here fighting for good, quality, safe patient care,” Taylor Flint, a registered nurse in the hospital's emergency department, said.

“They just are continuously talking about reducing our staffing and not increasing it,” fellow ER nurse Beth Cook added.

Reductions, the nurses said, include the hospital's decision to cut one of the two security guards, as well as plans to remove required patient ratios in the ER.

"We have a

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