RN Mailing 10.02.08
Posted on 10.06.08

Dear MNA RN,

As nurses at the Brigham we choose to work in the most challenging and rewarding environment for many reasons. First and foremost, we are the best at what we do and would expect nothing less. We choose to care for the most complex and acutely ill patients in the region. We do this with the expectation that the hospital’s nursing administration and managers will endeavor to afford us the tools we need as professionals, to provide the world-class care that is promised to our patients.

As nurses and a professional organized labor group, it is in our best interest to see our hospital be both successful and profitable. This is in the best interest for all parties. First, the patients benefit, because if the hospital is profitable they invest in technology, infrastructure and appropriate nursing staff to meet the patients’ needs. The nurses benefit by being able to provide quality care, make fair wages and have a safe work environment, including excellent morale. Finally, the institution benefits with decreased nosocomial infections, decubitus ulcer occurrence etc, as well as higher patient satisfaction scores and subsequent improved revenue streams.

In other words: excellent care for patients and families provided by the very best staff in the safest environment.

To get the results we all want and that our patients deserve, it takes a courageous and forward-looking management team. Those willing and able to evoke the institutional change that we are proposing.

However, despite the obvious benefits to all, the current management group at the Brigham has successfully dodged responsibility for years by always “working on” identified problems and never truly solving them…Because if you “solve” a problem you then have to actually be responsible for the outcome.

We have asked them to fix the staffing problems for years and have gotten false promises and the never ending “we are working on it”. That will no longer suffice.

The complete abdication of managerial responsibility for running the hospital in a safe manner, has forced the nurses themselves to fix the problems for them.

We identified the current staffing deficiencies and issues and came up with solutions…and we are presenting them across the bargaining table. We remind our managers and nursing administrators THEY forced us to come up with a staffing plan because they are apparently incapable of doing so.

The nurses here at the Brigham are, after all is said and done, investors in this hospital. We invest our labor, our knowledge and our time. We simply expect a return on our investment.

In Unity
The MNA Bargaining Committee