National Nurses United

Massachusetts RNs Crank Up Street Heat for Safe Staffing MASSACHUSETTS R aising signs that read ���safe staffing equals quality care, safe staffing now and staffing cuts hurt us all,��� hundreds of nurses who work at hospitals represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United in Worcester and Natick, Mass., conducted highly publicized informational pickets in November to call for desperately needed improvements in patient care conditions. The events drew significant local media coverage, highlighting nurses��� ongoing concerns about understaffing and excessive patient assignments as the hospital industry seeks to cut costs, using the implementation of Obamacare as an excuse. Nurses at the Worcester-based hospital campuses of UMass Memorial Medical Center chanted and marched in front of the system���s University Medical Center campus on Nov. 8, while their counterparts at for-profit owned Vanguard/MetroWest Medical Center in Natick held their demonstration on Nov. 19. The picketing in Worcester was called after the 2,000 nurses represented by MNA at the University and Memorial/Hahnemann campuses of UMMMC have been engaged in nearly a year of negotiations for a new union contract, with little progress on a number of key issues, including the nurses��� call for safer RN staffing levels. The nurses are outraged about deteriorating��working DECEMBER 2012 conditions, a lack of resources, and untenable patient loads following more than six rounds of layoffs involving hundreds of RNs and support staff over the last two years.�� ���We are out here today to alert the public about our concerns for their safety in the wake of unprecedented and unwarranted cuts to RN staffing levels��on both��campuses of the UMass Memorial system,��� said Margaret McLoughlin, RN, a nurse in the intensive care unit and co-chair of the MNA local bargaining unit representing more than 1,000 nurses on the University hospital campus. ���We are here to tell you if UMass management has its way, there may not be a nurse at your bedside when you need one. Their desire to boost profits by cutting your care could ultimately cost your life.����� The 200 nurses of MetroWest Medical Center, who also have been negotiating a contract for a year, had the same message. ���The primary reason you are in a hospital is because your condition is so serious you require around-the-clock attention by one of these nurses, who are specially trained to monitor your condition from minute to minute and take immediate action to save your life,��� said Lynn Shaw, co-chair of the MNA local bargaining unit for the 189 nurses who work at MetroWest/Leonard Morse Hospital. ���Right now the hospital is failing to provide appropriate staffing levels, which hamper our ability to be at our patients��� bedside when they need us most. The signs on this picket line tell the story: We need safe staffing and we need it now.����� W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G According to official staffing plans posted on the Massachusetts Hospital Association���s ���Patient Care Link��� website, UMMMC and MetroWest Medical Center have the worst RN staffing in their respective regions in the state, with MetroWest Medical Center having the worst staffing in the entire Commonwealth. These staffing levels have had a demonstrable impact on the systems��� quality of care. Last month, a report by the federal Medicare program showed that the UMass system and MetroWest Medical Center were listed among the 10 hospitals in the state receiving the highest penalties by the government for poor patient care, specifically for the rate that UMass patients are readmitted to the hospital post discharge because of preventable complications related to their care. Studies have shown that RN staffing levels are directly related to hospital readmission rates. ���When nurses have too many patients to care for at one time, complications are more likely and at UMass, we have been warning management about these conditions for two years, yet they continue to cut staff,��� said Lynne Starbard, RN, a maternity nurse on the UMass Memorial Hospital campus, whose unit has seen some of the deepest cuts in the past year. ���We are appalled that with all the data supporting our plea for safe staffing, the management team at UMass Memorial has opted to disregard the numerous studies and directed the nurses to ���do more with less.��� Just since this most recent round of layoffs, I have received dozens of official reports of unsafe staffing from nurses in the maternity center, the NICU, the emergency department, and the med-surg units,��� said Colleen Wolfe, co-chair of the MNA local bargaining unit representing 1,000 nurses on the Memorial and Hahnemann hospital campuses.�����Patients are at increased risk and are indeed suffering preventable infections such as MRSA, and pneumonia. They are also at increased risk of blood clots, heart attacks, and post-operative complications. Laboring mothers in our high-risk tertiary center are not receiving the focused attention they need from their nurse. This puts mothers and babies in further jeopardy. We are here today to tell you that we are in trouble! There are not enough of us to safely care for our patients! We need safe staffing.��� ���David Schildmeier�� N AT I O N A L N U R S E 5

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