OCEANSIDE - Tri-City Medical Center's 702 registered nurses will remain members of the California Nurses Association.

According to results provided by the hospital late Wednesday night, 63 percent of registered nurses voted to remain union members in a decertification vote held at the public hospital.

Hospital spokesman Jeff Segall said that 342 nurses voted yes on the question of whether to remain in the nursing union, while 197 voted no. A total of 539 registered nurses cast secret ballots, pushing the turnout rate to 77 percent.

More than half of Tri-City's 700 registered nurses signed union cards in 2005. One year later, as allowed by hospital policy, 240 nurses filed a petition declaring their wish to leave the union.

Nurses who wanted out of the union have said over the last three months that they disagree with the way the union card-signing process was used to unionize the nursing staff in 2005, saying that a secret ballot is more democratic.

More recently, those who filed the decertification petition have said that they do not believe a three-year contract recently approved between the union and the hospital made enough gains for nurses.

Denise Douglass, one of the nurses who pushed hardest for decertification, said late Wednesday that she was pleased with the election's turnout, even though the union will still represent her.

She said she is satisfied to know that a majority of her fellow nurses truly want to be union members.

"It was a very well-put-on election, very fair," Douglass said. "They all came out and they voted. It was fair, and nobody should have any hard feelings."

Brenda Hamm, a Tri-City nurse and chief nurse representative for the union at Tri-City, said there was no victory celebration after the ballots were counted.

"It's a nice relief for everybody, and I think it really united all of the nurses," Hamm said.

Dennis Wilhite, an intensive care nurse who said he has worked at the hospital for 2 1/2 years, said he marked his ballot to keep the union. He said the election has caused a divide between union backers and those who want out.

"The tension is so bad that you can cut it with a knife," Wilhite said.

But Wilhite, speaking in the afternoon before it was clear that the union would win, said he was sure that he and his fellow nurses would be able to put aside the long-standing friction that has divided nurses into two camps: Union supporters and union detractors.

"We are all professionals," he said.

Douglass and Hamm said they too saw the vote as a turning point.

"Now that it's over, I think we can patch things up and work together," Hamm said.

"I feel a total relief that everybody is now united as we were before," Douglass added.

Tri-City was required to bring in an independent official to conduct the election to make sure there were no attempts to influence its outcome.

The scene in the basement assembly room Wednesday was simple.

The state supervisor, who said he "made it his policy" not to speak to the media, sat at the front of the room, flanked by four observers -- two members of the nurses union and two hospital employees. On a folding table sat the ballot box, a plain wooden crate with a slot cut in the top.

Each nurse was given a paper ballot asking whether the nurses association should continue to represent Tri-City's registered nurses.

- Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.