Negotiations will continue towards a new contract for Registered Nurses at a local hospital.

The UPMC Altoona Registered Nurses contract expired today, but they’ve agreed to continue negotiating a new deal. Their current agreement was originally set to expire in December, but the two sides agreed to a one-month extension.

UPMC Altoona’s Registered Nurses released a statement regarding the negotiations:

“From the beginning we have been committed to better staffing, because that leads to better care, healthier patients and ultimately lower costs for everyone,” said Cindy Shuma, RN. “We feel confident that management wants those same results for this community, so we will continue negotiations.”

Negotiations have been on-going since October, and the nurses will work under the terms of the current contract until a new deal is reached.