Union members say they have complained for months about a nursing shortage
The Boston Globe
By Jonathan Saltzman
April 27, 2026
A procedure room at Tufts Medical Center was photographed in 2024. Union members say they have complained for months about a nursing shortage.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
More than 70 unionized nurses at Tufts Medical Center have expressed no confidence in the manager who oversees operating rooms at the teaching hospital, saying she has failed to act on their complaints of a critical nursing shortage.
A group of the nurses on Thursday presented the manager, Anna DaSilva, executive director of perioperative services, with a letter saying they had “‘no confidence’ in your ability to manage Tufts’ OR Department safely and appropriately.”
“Immediate changes are required in order to protect patients, staff, and the hospital overall,” said the letter, which was signed by 74 of the 81 nurses who staff about two dozen operating rooms at the hospital. The nurse said they have complained about the situation for months.
DaSilva is a registered nurse with a doctor of nursing practice degree and a master of business administration degree, according to her LinkedIn page.
The union also filed complaints with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the American College of Surgeons, the Joint Commission, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
DaSilva could not be reached for comment. Tufts spokesperson Bill Durling said in a statement that the health system is “confident in our staffing plan and nursing leadership” and that “patient safety, quality, and caregiver well-being remain our highest priorities.”
He added that like many hospitals across the region, “we’re experiencing high surgical volume” and called that “an encouraging sign of the community’s trust in our services.”
Tufts Medicine has been trying to improve its financial picture in recent years, but it was unclear whether the alleged nursing shortage stemmed from cost-cutting efforts. Tufts reported a $58.6 million operating loss on $3 billion in revenue for the year ending September 2025. That was much better than the $250.7 million loss on $2.6 billion in revenue reported for the same period in 2024, though it also marked the health system’sfourth year operating in the red.
Operating room nurses say the hospital has been abusing rules that require them to stay beyond their scheduled shifts if managers need them or spend multiple hours on call in case they might need to come in.
Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, an operating room nurse and co-chair of the Massachusetts Nurses Association union’s local at Tufts, said that one of her colleagues had to work 38 hours of overtime in each of two weeks in March and had no option to say no. Overtime pays time and a half, she said.
Another colleague worked 32 hours in regular shifts in a week but was required to be on call an additional 128 hours, Cornacchia said. Nurses get paid $10 an hour while on call outside the hospital.
Cornacchia couldn’t specify how many operating room nurses she believes the hospital needs to hire. But she said 10 nurses have retired or resigned in the past year and the vacancies have not been filled.
“The bottom line is there aren’t enough staff,” she said.
Fortunately, she said, the shortage hasn’t affected patient care.
“It’s just that people are exhausted and there’s no work-life balance,” she said.
The operating room nurses spent several months meeting with Tufts administrators about the shortage, “with many promises made but no concrete action” taken by management, David Schildmeier, a union spokesperson, said in a statement. He said the letter of no confidence was a “last resort … in an attempt to prevent an inevitable tragedy.”
Six years after COVID-19 swept through the country, US hospitals continue to grapple with a shortage of nurses. Many nurses who worked long hours caring for patients while trying to protect themselves subsequently left the field because of fatigue and burnout. The shortage is only expected to grow as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.
