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Brockton Nurses Strike
WHO ARE WE?
We are your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and
uncles, nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends. We are band
parents and school council members, some of us are your city and
town elected and appointed officials. We're scout leaders and sports
coaches; we participate in volunteer projects and walk for Breast
Cancer and AIDS research and against hunger in the richest nation
of this earth.
Some of us have working spouses and some of us are single parents,
some of us have been in our careers for a very long time and some
of us are just starting out. We have rent and mortgage payments,
car payments and utility bills. We're trying to save for college
education and attempting to find a little extra to earmark for
our retirement years. In short, we're just like most of you in
a majority of ways.
Unfortunately, we're also the neighbors who may awaken you with
our snow shoveling at 4, or 5 AM. We're the ones you see leaving
home on a major holiday, without our vehicles laden with family
and gifts. Along with our coworkers in the allied health fields,
our destination is Brockton Hospital.
WE ARE THE NURSES OF BROCKTON HOSPITAL
For over one hundred years our predecessors and we have provided
the quality nursing care you, our patients and neighbors, deserve.
It is our goal to insure that we, and our successors, are able
to fulfill this mission for the next hundred years and beyond.
We have sworn responsibility to provide safe and effective nursing
care to the patients entrusted to us. We cannot and will not abrogate
that responsibility, nor will we stand silent while we see this
quality being eroded.
As nurses, we experience the joy of providing the first touch
of human caring as your child enters this world and we are often
the last caring voice or touch your loved ones experience as they
exit our world.
Between these two extremes, we are charged with providing for
our patient's various health needs by utilizing our skills in the
Art and Science of Nursing. The science component of our nursing
duties is constantly expanding and we must, as professionals, stay
current with these changes in order to fulfill our responsibilities.
We take pride in knowing that we meet this responsibility and continue
to maintain our skills and proficiency.
Unfortunately, it is the Art of Nursing that most often gets compromised
when staffing and working conditions are less than adequate.
It is at the bedside that a nurse has the greatest impact. This
is where the nurse recognizes the subtle changes to the patient's
speech that may signal an impending stroke, or the slight change
on the monitor or the change in breathe sounds, skin color or mental
acuity. All of these factors can require medical intervention or
at the very least, continued monitoring. An exhausted nurse or
the nurse who is assigned from a different unit due to staffing
shortages is not nearly as effective in recognizing and responding
to these situations. As nurses, our basic knowledge from Nursing
School is universal; however, it is our work assignment that defines
our expertise and experience. This is the reason that floating
a nurse from one unit to another is an unsafe practice.
Our issues are your issues …
We are the primary advocates for our patients. We will continue
to do this as we always have, from your bedside or from our picket
line. The issues are unchanged, only the location is different.
We know in our hearts that our cause is just and our commitment
is unwavering. We also recognize that we are seeking major changes
from the hospital administration and our success may well be the
result of a long and difficult labor dispute.
If you agree, stop by or call and make your support known. We
are still here for you; you'll just find us on the outside of the
building. It's not where we want to be and it's certainly not where
the heart and soul of the institution should be.
Cheryl A. Conway, RN
IV Therapy Department
Brockton Hospital
Abington, MA
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