National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_April 5/5/11 11:35 AM Page 4 NEWS BRIEFS Massachusetts RNs Authorize Strikes, Step Up Fight for Safe Staffing MASSACHUSETTS N early 1,100 Massachusetts registered nurses with Tufts Medical Center in Boston prepared to hold a one-day strike in May, escalating their campaign to improve RN staffing levels at their hospital. Some 740 RNs at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester had been prepared to do the same, but reached a lastminute tentative agreement on May 4. At Tufts, management has drawn a line in the sand, stating repeatedly that it has no interest in agreeing to enforceable limits on nurses' patient assignments in the contract it is currently bargaining with nurses. In the past 15 months, Tufts nurses have filed more than 600 reports of incidents that jeopardized patient care. The 1,100 nurses there have serious objections to the chronic understaffing and failure to adjust staffing based on acuity, as well as the use of mandatory overtime and unsafe 4 N AT I O N A L N U R S E floating of nurses to other units to compensate for not having enough nurses on duty. "Those changes transformed this hospital from being one of the best-staffed hospitals in Boston to the worst-staffed hospital in the city," said Barbara Tiller, RN and chair of the MNA bargaining unit at Tufts. "With this strike vote, Tufts nurses are sending a strong message that they are ready and willing to take a stand for their patients and their profession." Tiller pointed out that Tufts intensive care unit and neonatal intensive care unit RNs are expected to care for three patients—a patient load that is not allowed at other hospitals and is against the law in California. "I see nurses all over the hospital going home late and in tears over how bad their shift was, and hear that they spend sleepless nights wondering what they missed, or feeling horrible about not being able to provide the level of care they know their patients deserve," said Tiller. 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 At St. Vincent Hospital, the RNs had been locked in a 16-month dispute with Vanguard Health Care, the for-profit owner of the hospital, over management's refusal to include contract language to improve unsafe patient care conditions at the hospital. Over this period, nurses filed more than 1,000 official reports of unsafe conditions. "We are proud of this agreement as it is the result of our membership's willingness to take a stand for their patients and their profession," said Marlena Pellegrino, RN and cochair of the nurses' local bargaining unit. "The nurses spoke and the hospital was forced to finally listen to us." St. Vincent RNs had been outraged that their patients are forced to suffer every day while Vanguard has reaped more than $50 million in profits over the last two years from St. Vincent alone, and just recently spent more than $1 billion to purchase hospitals in other parts of the country. "Vanguard can well afford to provide the safe care the patients in this community deserve," said Pellegrino. —David Schildmeier APRIL 2011

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