LIHU'E, Kaua'i —Striking nurses and Wilcox Memorial Hospital yesterday reached a tentative settlement to a strike that has lasted more than four months.

Nurses will vote on the pact tomorrow. No details of the agreement were released, but in a joint statement issued by officials representing the Hawai'i Nurses Association and Wilcox said they expect that a proposed three-year contract will end the strike. Jon Carroll, the lead negotiator for the union, said the bargaining committee supports the agreement.

A key issue in the dispute was an insistence among nurses that the hospital establish a staffing scheme that links the number of nurses on duty to patient load, which would be calculated based on both the number of patients nurses cover and the level of care those patients require.

In a letter to the nurses, hospital President Kathy Clark said Wilcox is willing to work with nurses on concerns tied to staffing in medical and surgical units. Clark noted, "the final decision will always have to remain with nursing management when it comes to staffing because no hospital can relinquish its responsibilities and hand over staffing completely to nurses."

While nurses have maintained picket lines at main entrances to the hospital, the hospital has hired traveling nurses to cover for the strikers. The hospital had 140 full-time, part-time and on-call nurses before the strike.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.