Tufts nurses vote 70% to authorize strike

[Chin up]

Just heard on channel five, Boston. Nurses at one of Boston's biggest hospital, have just voted to authorized a one day strike. Over 70% of the nurses who voted have decided that Tufts Medical Center has a patient care problem and they are willing to go on strike to fix it. 1100 nurses could, walk away from bedside. Their union only has one issue, to force the hospital to increase nurse patient ratio and to create mandatory staffing. Something the CEO has vowed will not happen. Nurses say patient care has suffered because there are too few of them to help. One nurse said, " I am done explaining to a patient why, when the call bell rings nobody comes" and "why they are lying in wet sheets". Tufts is calling this gross hyperbole. Tufts has been reducing cost hiring less expensive techs instead of more nurses for certain bedside jobs. Tufts insist they are ranked 6, in hospital safety in the country. Nurses say hospital officials are exaggerating. Nurses want the right staff at the right time to care for what patients need. Nurses say, this is their fight! Tufts is now searching for nurses all over the country to staff the hospital for the one day strike.

Would any of you cross this picket line? Do you think the nurses are doing the right thing and why?

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

tufts chief takes on nurses

vows to tap replacements during possible strike

zane told the herald she's contacted out-of-state nurses and is prepared to spend up to $4 million hiring at least 200 to keep tufts open during what she's classifying as a "very, very likely" work stoppage over a dispute about how many patients each nurse serves. the union wants a limit of four per shift-a demand zane said could cost another $33 million a year ...

... "i will never, ever agree to a nurse-staffing ratio," said zane, who has run the once-nearly bankrupt chinatown medical center for seven years and will retire sept. 30. "and i won't put this hospital in a position of financial harm, so some union can get more members."

zane's saber-rattling comes after months of negotiation between tufts administrators and nurses' representatives, who said changes in the way the hospital provides care has led to overburdened nurses and lower-quality care.

"administrators are turning hospitals into factories, and making nurses work like lucille ball on the factory line," schildmeier said. "instead of chocolates going by, these are human beings."...

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1330064

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Four or fewer patients per RN is evidence based to prevent death due to "failure to rescue".

I agree with the Tufts nurses.

Please open attachments to read the studies.

Aiken_study_Oct2002.pdf

Aiken_hsr_ratios_study_04-2010.pdf

[mojitos2go]

Chin Up, do you have any idea how the community feels about the nurse's fight at Tuft's? Are folks supportive? There seems to be a lot of nurse-bashing in the Comments section of the Boston Herald site. Do these malcontents represent the masses? The 114K nurses' salaries ruffled some feathers.

[Ashley_RN]

RN here who works nearby at another large, teaching hospital in Boston... have been one myself, as well have had family members & friends as patients at this hospital, so very familiar with it. I am beyond proud of these nurses who have spoken up, willing to fight for their patients, they are TRUE patient advocates. I stand beside there decision 100% and would NEVER dare consider stepping a toe over that line :)

[Catch22Personified]

Chin Up, do you have any idea how the community feels about the nurse's fight at Tuft's? Are folks supportive? There seems to be a lot of nurse-bashing in the Comments section of the Boston Herald site. Do these malcontents represent the masses? The 114K nurses' salaries ruffled some feathers.

People won't be satisfied, lets say Tuft's does concede to the staffing ratio of 4 to 1. People will say that nurses are being overpaid for their work even though there is a reduction in fatalities. If Tufts doesn't concede and we have the 7 to 1's and increased patient mortality, people will say nurses are lazy and not doing their job right.

I love how the corporate overlords know how to turn people against each other.

[mojitos2go]

Union Busting 101. Administration loves to divide and conquer. The public is clueless unless they have a family member or friend in the biz. Thanks for the reply, Catch22.

[Chin up]

Chin Up, do you have any idea how the community feels about the nurse's fight at Tuft's? Are folks supportive? There seems to be a lot of nurse-bashing in the Comments section of the Boston Herald site. Do these malcontents represent the masses? The 114K nurses' salaries ruffled some feathers.

If you knew the Boston Herald, you would not be surprised. The rag represents, the multitudes of misinformed, underachieving, labor hating, "anti- liberal, gay, minority, working women, house owning, luxury car driving people of this state". Which is fine, but they react first, before thinking things through and are suspicious of anyone who does. Instead of making up their own minds, they let others think for them. The anti- intellectual crowd, is what they are called. Now, if you had read this same article in the Boston globe, the replies would have been neutral to supportive, with very few opposed. The majority of Bostonians read the Globe, NOT the Herald. Nurses are very respected in Boston and have the support of many. Peace!

Edit: Boston is an expensive city. Salary posted is required to live here. Other Boston hospitals carry much higher wages.

[Guest717236]

i support the tuft's nurses 100 % not only as a nurse, but as a

family member who had a loved one admitted to tufts. the nurses are

right to support patient care and safety with their current demands.

staffing a few years ago was scarce in some units, i can not image what

it is for them now.

many years ago, the union won a similar decision for a group of nurses

at a tufts teaching hospital in the suburbs of boston.it was the first

nurses strike in massachusetts. the nurses won.

bless the tufts nurses for speaking up on behalf of their patients and demanding a safe nurse/patient ratio.

(disclaimer- i spent a lot of my nursing school rotations in tufts teaching

hospitals many moons ago, the care was excellent and the teaching

environment was called camelot by the nursing students and medical

students. heartbreaking that things have changed..)

go tufts nurses!!!

[Guest717236]

Here is the presentation from the MNA entitled Patient

Care at Risk at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts

http://www.massnurses.org/files/TuftsReportMarch162011.pdf

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

just one example from page 34:

feb. 13, 2010 night shift charge nurse was forced to give vacation time to 2 nurses scheduled for the day shift to comply with the minimum staffing guidelines in spite of high acuity. the acuity on the floor during the night shift was so high the crn was involved for most of the night and stayed overtime into the day shift until 10am to assist the day crn with the acuity.

during the night shift one patient was intubated with no unit bed to go to. the patient remained on the floor with crn assistance while they were forced to take an additional critically ill patient onto the floor requiring icu care.

so while 2 icu patients being maintained on the floor in acute distress the day shift was still knowingly forced to flex down nurses leaving an extremely unsafe environment for all patients on the floor at the start of the shift.

the night crn stayed overtime until 10:30 because the 2ncd icu patient decompensated and required intubation as well. now 2 intubated patients on the floor with no icu beds. one patient extremely agitated while intubated and crn unable to sedate adequately due to pyxis limitations suffered a dirty needle stick from this hiv, hepc infected patient.

the crn had to be excused to obtain self care in the ed left the floor with 2icu patients and no icu nurse to care for them. the floor nurses forced to accept this patient assignment had 4 other patients with these intubated patients.

http://www.massnurses.org/files/tuft...arch162011.pdf

we know that fatigue and hunger due to lack of sufficient staff to provide for meal and rest breaks lead to accidents and errors.

[tewdles, RN]

Yup support the nurses.

Nope wouldn't cross the picket line.

All this nonsense when there are studies which clearly correlate poor staffing to increased patient morbidity and mortality.

Money makes people stupid sometimes.

[WIN007]

so, um, pardon my ignorance but does this have anything to do with the message somebody posted earlier showing a craigslist ad listed , just wondering.