Masschusetts Nurse | April 2000

Board dismisses Adams' complaint
Fails to hold all nurses accountable 

More than 100 RN's attended the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing (BORN) meeting on March 8 to lend their support to MNA member Barry Adams, RN, in his fight to ensure that all nurses are held to the same professional standards — whether they work as nurse administrators or staff nurses.

To the shock and dismay of the many nurses witnessing the one-hour hearing on Adams' complaint, the board followed the lead of its complaint committee, which had met on Feb. 23, and recommended dismissal of Adams case, a decision that had already sparked nursing concerns because of the committee's handling of the evidence in the case, and its failure to follow what observers contended was a fair and appropriate procedure in considering the complaint. 

At the heart of Adams' complaint is the issue of accountability of all licensed nurses, including nurse executives, for decisions they make which adversely affect patient care. The case comes at a time when nurses across the state and the nation have been voicing their concerns about the deterioration of patient care in light of chronic understaffing in America's hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies

Adams was fired in 1996 after blowing the whistle on unsafe staffing conditions at the Youville Health Care Center, a Boston-area facility that is now closed. In 1998, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in Adams' favor, saying that his administrator had violated the law when she fired him for speaking out.

Adams repeatedly had asked the BORN to investigate Youville nurse administration that created a work environment that was harmful to patients through short staffing and other unsafe practices. And in his recent complaint, Adams' charged his nursing supervisor  and the nursing home adminstrator  with unprofessional and unethical conduct and patient neglect. 
At the March 8 hearing on the complaint , the BORN refused to hear from Adams' attorney during its hour-long discussion of the case or to consider a key piece of evidence that linked the RN's firing to his ongoing attempts to get management to address 
unsafe patient conditions, according to Adams attorney. 

Further, according to Adams' attorneys, the committee considered the complaint in a manner that appeared to predispose the committee to support its dismissal. The evidence to support Adams' claims was not consistently or accurately considered by the committee. The BORN repeated this process on March 8.

In fact, the BORN's handling of the evidence was so egregious, according to the attorney, the firm is considering filing a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court against the BORN to overturn the decision. 

"I'm not surprised by their decision based on previous actions involving my case and the Dana-Farber decisions, but I'm amazed that they can reach the conclusion they did," said Adams. "There were a 1,000 pages of documents, including court records, Department of Public Health reports and affidavits from people who worked at Youville, and they couldn't see any breaches in unprofessional or unethical conduct or patient neglect?" 
 

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