St. Vincent's Strike

MNA's Comment on Secretary Galvins' Press Release:  Kudos to Secretary of State William F. Galvin for his efforts to call the Board of Registration in Nursing to task for their process of approving replacement nurses from strike breaking agencies. These nurses are collecting a $4,000 per week check for breaking the strike of nurses making a stand to protect patients and improve care. The reports by DPH yesterday are not isolated. We have been receiving horrific reports of nurses sleeping on the job, and overdosing patients, fighting with themselves and physicians, nurses who lack the competencies to practice in the areas for which they are assigned.  

Galvin Calls for Probe of Worcester Nursing Hiring
Text of Press Release from Sec. Of State Galvin Concern Replacment Nurses,  May 2, 2000

Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin today blasted the "reckless" speed with which the state has approved credentials strike-breaking replacement nurses at the Worcester Medical Center, and he called for an investigation of the role played by the Board of Registration in Nursing.

In the wake of the firing for misconduct of three strike-breaking temporary nurses at the Worcester hospital, Galvin asked Inspector General Robert A. Cerasoli to "investigate the apparently accelerated process by which out of state domiciled registered nurses have been granted reciprocity to practice in Massachusetts so as to act as strike-breaker replacement nurses as the former St. Vincent's Hospital now Worcester Medical Center owned by the for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp."

He also asked the Legislature's Joint Committee on Government Regulations, which deals with bills concerning state boards of registration, to investigate, as well.

"I believe that the facts will show that the Board of Registration of Nursing has deliberately accelerated the review process so as to approve these out of state nurses in as little as seventy-two hours while ordinarily nurses coming from another state seeking reciprocity in Massachusetts would normally be subject to a lengthy review process so as to properly evaluate their qualifications and work history," Galvin wrote to Sen. Michael W. Morrissey and Rep. Daniel E. Bosley.

The strike of nurses at Worcester Medical center is in its fifth week. The Tenet Healthcare Corp. has staffed it with replacement nurses since it opened.  Last week, the company fired two of the nurses who left a surgical patient unattended in a post-operative recovery room. A third, who delivered a newborn to the wrong mother for nursing, was also fired.

The announcement of those firings, Galvin said, "makes this inquiry as to the licensing procedures an urgent necessity."

"Unfortunately," he added, "it appears that in their reckless effect to assist tenet Healthcare Corp. import strike-breaking nurses, the Board of Registration of Nursing has put at risk the health of our citizens."

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