03.09.2000

Board denies nurse's staffing complaint
By Richard A. Knox, Globe Staff, 3/9/2000 

The Massachusetts board that regulates nursing yesterday dismissed a nurse's complaint that he was fired because he spoke up about working conditions that he contended were unsafe for patients.

 ''I was pointing out that we had undergone a downsizing and a reduction in staffing, but we were expected to give the same quality of care to patients, which is impossible,'' said nurse Barry Adams. 

The case has attracted national attention among nurses because of the issues they say it raises about the accountability of nurse-managers who implement cost-cutting decisions to reduce staffing or use inexperienced personnel.

Adams filed charges against his supervisor, nurse Ann T. Poster, alleging that her firing of him constituted unprofessional and unethical behavior. He alsoalleged that she was guilty of patient neglect for her role in overseeing a Cambridge nursing home unit where one patient died of an accidental morphine overdose and other patients were victims of care-related mishaps, Adams and Poster worked at Youville Health Care Center, an extended-care facility that has since closed.

But officials of the Board of Registration in Nursing said Adams had failed to prove that Poster fired him in 1996 because of his repeated complaints about unsafe working conditions.

Theresa M. Bonanno, the nursing board's executive director, said the board believed Poster when she testified that she fired Adams for insubordination.

''He's saying she fired him totally in retaliation,'' Bonanno said. ''I must say,the board doesn't find that to be any more credible than the reasons she put forward.''

Adams and his supporters were dismayed by the board's decision. His lawyers said they may challenge it in court, using a rarely used mechanism to reverse state agency decisions.

 ''If the Barry Adams case doesn't raise these larger issues, then the public should ask what case would,'' said Suzanne Gordon, a journalist who often writes about nursing issues.

David Schildmeier, a spokesman for the 20,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association, said, ''We're just outraged by the decision.'' The association brought about 100 nurses to the board meeting and demonstrated outside. 

Adams and his supporters said the nursing board is protecting nurse-managers, while holding staff nurses accountable for lapses in patient care.

But Bonanno said, ''There really are no facts to support that.'' She said board staff members recalled a dozen cases in the past two years in which nurse-managers were charged with license infractions.

This story ran on page B02 of the Boston Globe on 3/9/2000. © Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.