Why Demonstrate...?
 'Cus What Happens Here Affects All Nurses...

What We Are Questioning...

• Is it acceptable that nurse managers/executives - who design and implement systems that force nurses to work in understaffed and unsafe environments - are not disciplined by the BORN? 

• Is it ethical or professional behavior for a nurse manager to retaliate against or fire staff nurses who attempt to address concerns about staffing levels and patient care?

• Are both staff nurses and nurse administrators/executives held equally accountable for their practice by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing?

• You know the answers, your patients know the answers, and the public knows the answers.  DOES THE BORN?  On March 8th, the full BORN will finally make its decision to discipline or not to discipline a director of nurses and a nursing home administrator on the issues of unethical and unprofessional conduct and patient neglect.  This decision will demonstrate the BORN's willingness to equally apply and administer justice.

• In 1996, Barry Adams was fired (and other nurses were disciplined) by his nurse administrator for attempting to raise concerns about staffing levels at their facility. 

• Adams filed a complaint that year with the BORN against his DON and nursing home administrator for unethical conduct. The Board of Registration in Nursing dismissed his complaint.

• Adams re-filed the complaint in 1998, after the National Labor Relations Board ruled his administrator had violated the law by firing Adams, in an attempt to silence him.

• On Sept. 22, 1998, the BORN Complaint Committee held a conference on the case, where they informed Adams they had re-written his complaint, dismissing Adams' charges of unethical and unprofessional conduct and patient neglect, while refusing to hear testimony from witness who attended the conference to corroborate Adams' charges.

• On Nov. 10, 1999, the entire Board, after intense pressure from the nursing community, postponed its decision on Adams' complaints while reversing the Complaint Committee's decision, announcing that both complaints were open in their entirety for consideration by the BORN.

• On Feb. 23, 2000, the Complaint Committee once again considered the complaints, ignoring the NLRB's decision and mountains of evidence, while choosing to recommend that there wasn't sufficient evidence to support Adams' charges. 

• Now, the case goes before the entire BORN, yet again, on March 8th for a final decision.  We need to demonstrate to the BORN and influential members of the audience that this issue is important to ALL NURSES and that we are united on this issue.  Therefore, we need your support, your presence at this demonstration, and your feedback on this issue.