To The Editor (Submitted to the Boston Globe)

Dear Editor,

For the nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, particularly those who will be caring for critically ill cardiac patients in the new Shapiro Center, last week’s story in the Boston Globe (Norovirus sweeps two Boston hospitals, Jan.8) underscores grave concerns they have about a new open visitation policy that includes visitors sleeping in patient care rooms, which was the focus of an earlier Globe story (Brigham to widen access to ICUs, Jan 2).

Under the policy, patients’ families and friends will be allowed into the intensive care unit, and family members will be encouraged to participate in such nursing functions as wound “bandage changes”. We face serious staffing challenges each day at BWH but offering the lay public the opportunity to “practice” nursing is detrimental and dangerous to any patient, let alone one in an ICU. BWH nurses are frequently pressured to care for more patients than we believe is safe, but we prefer that the hospital appropriately staff the units with nurses, not families who are in crisis.

The mere presence of so many people in an ICU is a problem on a number of levels. The patients, particularly at BWH, are critically ill requiring constant monitoring by nurses, complex procedures, multiple intravenous lines and medications along with other advanced technology. The safety of our patients must be our first priority. Studies show that the more nurses are distracted, the more likely errors and preventable infections will occur. Every patient deserves to have their nurse’s undivided attention.

While nurses have always led efforts to expand family members’ access to the patient care environment, this goal should always be at the discretion of the nurse who is responsible for the care. The majority of nurses at the BWH take issue with the scope of the new guidelines and the fact that they will be implemented without broad support from the nurses.

Many people use the term “life and death”. When Brigham nurses use it, it really is. Sincerely, Barbara Norton, RN Chairperson, MNA Bargaining Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital