Tufts nurses vote 70% to authorize strike

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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?

Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

this thread is about tuffts nurses struggle too.

https://allnurses.com/collective-bargaining-nursing/tufts-chief-takes-551839.html

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Specializes in Mixed Level-1 ICU.

The CEO is so very concerned about expenses. She's retiring this year...wait until you see the severance package she gets. As long as nurses are considered a "cost burden" nothing will change and nurses will continue run like chickens without heads and patients will play Russian roulette whenever they're hospitalized.

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I would not cross any picket line, Let the big wigs do patient care since they think it is so easy.

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I don't cross any picket line, anywhere. Solidarity forever! :balloons:

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

I would never cross the line. We nurses need to start speaking up about the working conditions all over the US.

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

No way would I cross. They aren't asking for more money and daily massages, but simply adequate staffing. I support them 100%.

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Nope, would never cross....ever.....

United we stand, divided we fall....

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Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.

I worked there as a CNA during nursing school and the staffing was always something the nurses were concerned about, that and floating. I hope they get what they are asking for, they deserve it.

And no, I wouldn't cross a picket line. We need to stay united.

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Specializes in Med surg, LTC, Administration.

I have never been prouder to be a part of our sisterhood. The above replies, blow me away...and to think, I thought no one cared anymore...my bad. Kudos to all of you, I am beaming with pride. Now let's get to getting..

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.
I have never been prouder to be a part of our sisterhood. The above replies, blow me away...and to think, I thought no one cared anymore...my bad. Kudos to all of you, I am beaming with pride. Now let's get to getting..

Excuse me, but even us brothers are proud of the sisterhood; I get the sentiment so no offense taken :smokin:

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

nurse: we're fighting for the patients

by joe fitzgerald | saturday, april 16, 2011 | [color=#ca6700]http://www.bostonherald.com | [color=#ca6700]columnists

...as thursday afternoon dragged on, she knew her nursing colleagues were voting on whether to strike against their employer, tufts medical center.

"my stomach kept turning," she explained hours before the results came in, with 70 percent voting to authorize a one-day strike. "i was sickened by the idea. i've always said i wouldn't do it, that i'd never strike, that i'd cross the line if i had to, because walking off the job is not what nursing is all about. but this time it's different."

she's been a nurse for more than 30 years. it's the only job she ever wanted, a profession she viewed as a high calling.

but at tufts medical center, the nurses have now locked horns with the administration, maintaining that their performance has been compromised by bureaucrats whose eyes are fixed solely upon the bottom line....

... "they say we're lazy, that all we care about is money, that we're just pawns in a national agenda being pushed by our union.

"but it's not money that's frustrating us. it's going home every night feeling as if you didn't do a good enough job because of conditions that barely allow you to keep your head above water."

staffing levels are at the heart of this dispute.

nurses, she maintains, should be assigned no more than four patients.

"national studies clearly show that any number over four increases the risk of an accident or a mistake."

but the tufts administration regards that as lavish, so its nurses are assigned six, even seven patients.

"and they have us floating between floors," she adds. "we're being sent where we're not trained to be, so you end up with an oncology nurse caring for a cardiac patient.

"this isn't just about us and tufts. it's going to be happening everywhere. and when it does, they'll put out the word that greedy nurses are just looking for more money, which is what they're saying about us right now.

"if i let you use my name, i'm afraid i might lose my job. that ought to tell you something.

"all that matters to me is caring for patients. that's why i became a nurse, and it's why i'm so upset right now."...

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/2011_0416nurse_were_fighting_for_the_patients/srvc=home&position=also

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