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EMERGENCY
Nurses throughout the state: THIS is YOUR opportunity
. . . To Pass Safe Staffing Legislation
Step 1: Find Out Your
State Senator’s and State Representative’s
phone number, room number and email address.
Step 2: Your
Legislative Action Checklist
Walk through the checklist of calling, writing and emailing your
legislator. In addition, send a letter to the editor of your
local newspaper.
Step 3: Attend or Host a Legislative Briefing
You are the best messenger for the need to
pass safe staffing legislation. Please get involved and make
your voice heard.
Every nurse throughout Massachusetts has a unique
opportunity -- to pass safe staffing legislation. Never has
nursing care been such a front-burner issue as it has over the past
several months:
- In late February the nursing shortage was the
lead story in The Boston Sunday Globe.
- On March 8th over 400 nurses from across the
state gathered for the MNA Lobby Day at the State House to push
safe staffing legislation.
- The Boston Herald, as well as regional and community
newspapers from across the state have written about the crisis
facing the nursing profession and the ensuing problems of patient
care.
- The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health
Care held a special Oversight Hearing on Emergency Room Diversions
in which the underlying theme was “we need nurses to staff
these beds.”
- United States Senator John Kerry and Senior
staff from Senator Ted Kennedy’s office have held separate
roundtable discussions with MNA members about workplace and retention
issues in nursing.
Policy makers and opinion leaders acknowledge a crisis in nursing.
Problems with retention and recruitment of nurses is nothing short
of a public health crisis. Experienced nurses are leaving
the profession for the same reason the conditions they are forced
to work under - new nurses are quickly leaving the profession because
of the conditions they are forced to work under - and, because of
this, fewer and fewer people are entering the field.
The MNA has filed safe staffing legislation, House
Bill 1186. This bill is a promise to the nursing profession
that workplace conditions will improve, patient care will come first,
and you will once again have the ability to do your job properly.
To make this a reality, nurses across the state
must contact their legislators and urge their support of safe staffing
legislation. The following pages will guide you through a
step-by-step process to assist in the passage of safe staffing legislation.
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