It's back to the bargaining table for ARH and union nurses.

A meeting between Appalachian Regional Healthcare and Nurses Association representatives leads to an agreement to meet again later this month. This comes in the midst of a strike now in its third week.

The officials with the Kentucky and West Virginia Nurses Association and Appalachian Regional Healthcare agreed to meet a third time October 29th. We spoke with representatives from both sides about what they hope to see happen.

"I'm just hoping we'll get, negotiate something that we can all live with and we can go back to our jobs and provide safe patient care," said Registered Nurse Linda Campbell.

ARH officials say they feel the same.

"We are very hopeful that the meeting today will bring us closer to resolve issues surrounding the nurses’ strike and to be able to get our nurses back to work," said ARH Spokesperson Candace Elkins.

In the meantime, ARH is still hiring permanent replacements.

"We have hired about 50 permanent replacement registered nurses across our ARH system," Elkins said.

And strikers say they won't back down on their demands.

"Some people have already found another job, a lot of people, so we may not be working here. We'll stay out here as long as it takes to get a fair and equitable contract," Campbell said.

The president of ARH released the following statement just after this afternoon's meeting:

"We are disappointed that the union did not come prepared with any specific points of clarification on their issues," said ARH President and CEO Jerry W. Haynes. "The next meeting with the union and the federal mediator will take place on Monday, October 29."

The president of KNA tells a very different story, that they did get specific about mandatory overtime, benefits, and other issues, but she says ARH's attorney was not receptive.

Both sides hope to make more progress on the 29th