(Editor’s Note: Ninety years ago, tens of thousands of women, mostly
immigrants working in the needle trades on Manhattan’s Lower East Side,
struck for the right to organize and the right to vote. Since then,
International Women’s Day has been celebrated in countries around the world
on March 8th. This year, their spiritual descendants brought the cry for
justice to the Massachusetts State House in Boston with the largest, most
representative Nurse Lobby Day yet. At the very same time, the
corporate-dominated Congress suppressed OSHA’s new ergonomics standards which
had only been in effect for two months, dooming millions of working women and
men to job-related injury and disability. Before the new president gets to
sign this into law, let him know your thoughts on job safety and occupational
health by sending an email to <president@whitehouse.gov>. March 8th also
marked the launching of the new internet video capability by the
Massachusetts Nurses Association. Go to <http://www.massnurses.org> to find
out how to tap into this resource, and to hear directly from MNA why we are
pursuing independence from the reactionary American Nurses Association. For
news of labor struggles globally, including efforts by South Africa’s
government and people to make affordable HIV/AIDS drugs available despite a
lawsuit by the pharmaceutical corporations to preserve their lucrative and
costly patent rights, go to <http://www.labourstart.org>. And, finally, for
articles summarizing the breadth and depth of women’s struggles for equality
and freedom, go to
<http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Language=EN&Index=991212450> and
<http://www.itf.org.uk/PRESS/pr090301.htm>. -- Sandy Eaton, RN)

The following appeared on union talk:

Subj: MassNurse and Disaffiliation w/ANA
Date: 3/8/01 11:29:54 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: BethERNC
To: uniontalk@yahoogroups.com
CC: BAKMBoston

As the date of March 24, 2001 draws ever nearer, you can view interview
presentations on "Why We Need to Disaffiliate" at the Massachusetts Nurses
Assoc. website: http://www.massnurses.org - you will need to download
realplayer 8-Basic first. It is available at the massnurse website. I just
finished viewing one segment of the interviews, and I recommend you check it
out. Job well done here. My computer is an antique and it really worked well.
Thanks, Beth

----------------------

Subj: Video on the MNA web page
Date: 3/9/01 12:00:23 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: carriejl@home.com (Carrie Lybecker)
To: NurseAdvocate@yahoogroups.com, UnionTalk@egroups.com

Three loud and enthusiastic cheers for the Massachusetts Nurses Association!!

To my knowledge this is the first time a nursing organization has used
available Internet technology, ie video via Real Player, to deliver a
critical message. Please visit
<http://www.massnurses.org/news/disaff2/video.htm> and watch each of these
three mini films. Whether you agree with the content or not, it is clear that
MNA once again leads the world pack. In the future we will see everyone else
scramble to catch up. This is nursing history happening right in front of our
eyes, once again brought to us by the MNA, the same organization which put
whistleblower legislation, board of nursing repression of staff nurses, and
mandatory overtime on the national agenda. The effectiveness of MNA is why we
saw, for the first time, a US Senator (Ted Kennedy) demand that a cabinet
level nominee (Elaine Chao) verify her commitment to nurses on the issue of
mandatory overtime at her confirmation hearings, as televised on C-SPAN.

Congratulations to MNA!

Carrie

----------------------

The MNA hosted its most successful Nurse Lobby Day in MNA history yesterday,
with more than 400 nurses from all corners of the Commonwealth converging on
the State House to deliver a simple message to the state's policymakers: If
you want to fix the health care system, you have to guarantee safe nurse
staffing ratios. Not only did nurses meet with legislators and talk to the
press, but a panel of MNA members also testified at oversight hearings on the
problem of ER diversions, making a strong case for staffing legislation as
the solution to this critical problem. Below is a selection of stories that
appeared in major daily newspapers. Nurses were also covered by WBUR and WBZ
and WTAG Radio, on TV 56, as well as TV 22 and 40 in Springfield.

For those wishing to build on this momentum, plan on attending a Nursing
Summit on Safe Staffing Legislation, to be held April 5 - 7, at the Seacrest
Resort and Conference Center in Falmouth. Call the MNA at 781-830-5723 or
visit the MNA web site at www.massnurses.org <http://www.massnurses.org> for
more information.

David Schildmeier
Director of Public Communications
Massachusetts Nurses Association
800-882-2056 x717 (Within Mass. only)
781-830-5717
781-821-4445 (fax)
781-249-0430 (cell phone)
508-426-1655 (pager)

-------------------------

Nurse shortage critical at hospitals
<http://ledger.southofboston.com/display/inn_news/news02.txt>

by Tom Benner and Sue Reinert, Patriot Ledger

March 9, 2001

BOSTON – Emergency rooms are turning away patients more often, and hospital
professionals blame a shortage of nurses.

Nurses told a legislative committee yesterday that staff shortages in all
hospital departments create a backup in the emergency room. As a result,
ambulances must take all but the most critical cases to other hospitals.

The Legislature's Joint Committee on Health Care is considering legislation
to reduce the number of ambulance diversions.

"It's a backflow problem, it's not the ER's fault," Janet Gale, a Marshfield
resident and emergency room nurse at Carney Hospital told the committee.

"We can't move the people up to the floor. We have empty beds on the floor,
but we have no staff. There are no RNs there to staff the bed," she said.

Gale said the workload and stress are driving people away from nursing.

In addition to a shortage of nurses, hospital closings have caused a shortage
of beds, said Rep. Kathleen M. Teahan, D-Whitman.

"Those shortages have come about because of the low HMO reimbursements and
Medicare cuts," Teahan said. "There might be short-term solutions, but the
big solution is a remedy of health care financing."

State health officials told committee members that diversion of emergency
room patients, once limited to the winter influenza season, now occurs
year-round.

A one-week survey of 75 Massachusetts hospital emergency rooms between Feb. 1
and 7 found that 66 of the emergency rooms became so crowded they either
diverted patients to other hospitals or made special arrangements to handle
patient load.

Ten percent of emergency rooms in central Massachusetts were diverting
patients to other hospitals, and 70 percent in the Merrimack Valley.

Fifteen percent of emergency rooms in Southeastern Massachusetts were on
diversion at some point during that week.

South Shore Hospital in Weymouth typically turns away more non-critical
ambulance patients than any hospital in the region.

But the hospital treated more emergency-room patients last year than any
hospital in the state except Boston Medical Center, said spokesman Rick
Pozniak.

"We've tried to create more treatment space to accommodate more patients,"
Pozniak said.

In 1999 the hospital opened an emergency unit for children and last year it
added a 13-room observation unit for emergency room patients who need more
time for tests or other treatment before being sent home or admitted.

South Shore also expanded hours at its urgent care center, which treats
patients who come to the emergency room with less serious illnesses and
injuries.

The total urgent care, emergency room and observation capacity has risen
since 1997 from 35 beds to 61.

Pozniak said he does not know whether the expansion has reduced the need for
ambulance diversions. While the hospital has increased emergency room
capacity, it has also been performing more surgeries, which can tie up
inpatient beds. That clogs up the emergency room because emergency room
patients who need to go into the hospital must wait longer for a bed, Pozniak
said.

"Considering how busy we are, we're doing the best we can," he said.

Pozniak said that during the February state survey period, the hospital did
not go on diversion because of lack of staff, but he couldn't say whether
that was a factor during other periods.

Pozniak said that even during diversions the hospital emergency room is
always open. The hospital treats all patients who walk into the emergency
room and accepts any ambulance patients who might die if they were diverted
to another hospital, he said.

Copyright 2001 The Patriot Ledger

---------------------------------------

Nurses cite staffing ills
<http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business/nurs03092001.htm>

by Jessica Heslam, Boston Herald

March 9, 2001

With harrowing workplace tales to tell, nearly 400 nurses rallied yesterday
at the State House, where they pushed for legislation that would improve
their working conditions and increase staff.

"It's horrific and it's getting worse. You have sicker patients and fewer
nurses to take care of them," said Julie Pinkham, the executive director of
the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Yesterday's "Nurses Lobby Day," an event held annually for at least a
decade, drew a record number of nurses from the Berkshires to Boston.

Many Bay State nurses say care has declined at their hospitals, even making
them unsafe at times because of poor staffing.

Debra Rigiero, a 40-year-old nurse at St. Vincent Hospital intensive care
unit in Worcester, said patients who could use another night in the unit are
moved out too soon to make room for incoming patients.

"It's not unusual for them to be transferred out and then come back. You
always hope for the best," Rigiero said.

Other nurses said they are fed up with being forced to work several overtime
shifts each week - even when they're sick.

The nationwide nurse shortage is getting worse as aging nurses retire and
fewer people enter the field, statistics show.

Nurses are lobbying Beacon Hill lawmakers to pass the "safe staffing" bill,
a measure that would mandate minimum hospital staffing levels.

"The focus is the patient who needs the care and you've got to have adequate
staffing levels to provide that," said Rep. Frank Hynes, (D-Marshfield).

Copyright by the Boston Herald

------------------------

Profits, low staffing drive ER diversions
<http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business/er03092001.htm>

by Jennifer Heldt Powell, Boston Herald

March 9, 2001

Ballooning emergency room diversions - periods when incoming patients are
refused care and sent to another ER - stem from a lack of hospital staff and
a profit-driven emphasis on keeping institutions at maximum capacity, a
report issued yesterday indicates.

Bay State hospitals are increasingly closing their emergency rooms to all but
life-and-death cases because they don't have enough room in other
departments, according to the Department of Public Health report.

"Our concern is that patients may be suffering as a result of this," said
Dr. Howard Koh, public health commissioner. "This is a public health crisis
in the truest sense because it can affect everyone in our state."

Koh presented the report at an oversight hearing called by the Legislature's
Health Care panel.

Nurses at the hearing said yesterday they fear overcrowded ERs become unsafe
for patients.

"We feel we are unable to live up to the standards of our licenses because of
this situation," said Edith Harrington, a St. Vincent Worcester Medical
Center nurse.

As hospitals close around the state, those that remain are dealing with more
patients, Koh said.

"We've closed 35 percent of the hospitals over the last 25 years," he said.
"The number of acute care hospital beds has dropped in half, from 43,000 to
21,000."

Leslie Kirle, senior director of clinical policy and patient advocacy for the
Massachusetts Hospital Association, said: "What diversions have shown us is
that there isn't any slack in the system to handle peak demands."

The growth of cost-conscious HMOs has pushed hospitals into running closer to
full capacity, which has meant an increase in elective surgeries, say ER
staffers. It has created a dilemma for many hospitals, said Dr. Stephen
Epstein, who represents ER doctors.

"On the one hand, you need to be fiscally viable to keep your doors open and
that means doing elective surgeries,'' said Epstein. ``On the other hand, you
have an obligation to the community to provide a safety net through the
emergency room - it's a tough balancing act."

A survey last year found that only 15 percent of hospitals cancel elective
surgeries when they start waiving off ER patients, he said.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where Epstein runs ER
clinical operations, generally diverts people less often than other downtown
hospitals. He said several steps have been taken to improve patient flow.

Hospital executives are being encouraged to reexamine their discharge and
scheduling policies, Kirle said. "But these are short-term measures," she
added.

The bigger problem - and the harder one to solve - is a shortage of staff,
primarily nurses, said many who testified yesterday. Hospitals can't hire
enough nurses to staff intensive care units, recovery rooms and ERs. Nurses
say the shortage is due partly to earlier decisions by hospital executives to
cut back on staffing.

Tight staffing often leads to larger work loads and more forced overtime,
which has contributed to an exodus from the profession, nurses say. Those
working conditions have made it hard to attract new people into the field.

The difficult question now is how to solve the problem, said Rep. Harriett L.
Stanley (D-West Newbury), co-chairman of the Health Care Committee.

"There is broad agreement that it is largely a lack of staffing,'' she said.
"But there is not agreement over what to do about it."

Copyright by the Boston Herald

---------------------

Nurses lobby for ailing profession
<http://www.telegram.com/news/page_one/nurses.html>

by Shaun Sutner, Telegram & Gazette

March 9, 2001

BOSTON-- Nearly a year ago, Sandra A. Ellis was testifying at the Statehouse
against for-profit hospitals, as she and her fellow nurses waged a strike
against the California company that owns Worcester Medical Center.

Yesterday, Ms. Ellis, a leader of the union that pursued the 49-day strike
against Tenet Healthcare Corp., came back to the Statehouse along with more
than 400 other nurses from Worcester and across the state for a day of
intense lobbying in support of legislation to aid their ailing profession.

The bills the nurses were plugging include one that would mandate higher
nurse staffing levels in hospitals, and a legislative package from state Sen.
Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, to remedy the acute nursing shortage with
scholarships, loan programs and signing bonuses.

Ms. Ellis, a nurse at St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center, said
her return to Beacon Hill was a direct result of the strike -- waged mainly
over the nurses' resistance to mandatory overtime -- and the heightened need
for political action that it awakened. The strike, which involved more than
500 St. Vincent nurses, ended May 18.

"Nurses now understand the importance of legislation," Ms. Ellis said in an
interview. "The experience we went through, and because we had so much
legislative support, also taught us the importance of finding and having a
voice."

The nurses were joined by nursing students as they crowded into the Great
Hall of the Statehouse in the morning to listen to speeches from union
leaders and legislators receptive to their cause. Afterward, they fanned out
to testify at a hearing and to lobby legislators in their offices.

While the so-called "Nurse Lobby Day" is an annual event, this year's
turnout was the biggest ever, union officials said, probably because of the
attention focused on nurses' issues by the Worcester strike last year.

"I think it was a turning point in bols