05.11.2004

Boston Globe

Battle over nursing shortage heats up

More than 1,000 nurses, former patients and consumer activists are expected to descend on the State House today to press for passage of a bill requiring minimum nurse-staffing levels at the state's hospitals. Among the demonstrators will be people with stories about the severe nursing shortage -- such as a nurse practitioner who said he had to do his own suctioning when he was being treated for a collapsed lung.The demonstrators want the House Ways and Means Committee to allow a vote this week on a bill requiring hospitals to maintain minimum ratios of nurses to patients on every shift, a measure hospitals strongly oppose.
SCOTT ALLEN