2008 News
Globe Ad - Brigham and Women’s Hospital Nurses Achieve Staffing Improvements for Better Care
11.25.2008
View the original ad in the Boston Globe in .pdf format.
The registered nurses of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, are pleased to announce the ratification of a new union contract that includes long- sought improvements in RN staffing levels to ensure the highest quality care for our patients. While other hospitals in Massachusetts are making shortsighted decisions to cut RN staffing in these uncertain economic times, this agreement recognizes the valuable role nurses play in keeping patients safe in the hospital. It responds to volumes of recent scientific research that shows patients in hospitals with better RN staffing have significantly better clinical outcomes, shorter hospital stays, fewer complications and infections, and greater satisfaction with their care.
Staffing Improvements
The agreement includes the following commitments by hospital management:
- The hiring of additional staff to improve the nurse-to-patient ratios on the hospital’s busiest units, including those providing critical care to cardiac patients.
- A commitment to increase staffing in our labor, delivery and postpartum departments to meet national professional standards of care for mothers and newborns.
- A pilot program calling for the addition of resource nurses to improve the flow of patients throughout the hospital, ease overcrowding in our busy emergency department, and to decrease the extended delays that some patients experience while waiting to be transferred to an appropriate bed.
- A pilot program calling for the posting of additional nurse shifts to account for increases in patient volume and acuity.
- A commitment to meet monthly with the union to review staffing and patient care issues, with the goal of identifying opportunities to further improve care.
We are pleased that the hospital and the nurses have reached this agreement and look forward to its successful implementation to ensure the highest levels of compassionate, quality care that meets the physical and emotional needs of our patients.
The nurses of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital are proud to work for this premier institution and, through the voice and protection afforded us by our union representation, we remain committed to using that voice to meet our primary objective – to ensure that every patient under our care receives the best care possible and that there is a nurse at your bedside when you need us. BETTER CARE Brigham and Women’s Hospital Nurses Achieve Staffing Improvements for Better Care
A Message from MNA Brigham and Women’s Hospital Nurses Union
Sponsored by the Massachusetts Nurses Association
