State House News Service, June 26, 2008

Massachusetts nurses continue to visit state senators and staff, pushing for a floor vote on their staffing bill, which cleared the House on May 22 by a vote of 115-35 (sic). The legislation instructs the Department of Public Health to establish limits and standards for hospital nurse staffing levels. Several legislators and the Massachusetts Hospital Association strongly oppose the bill, claiming rigid staffing mandates will increase costs and prevent managers from assigning nurses where they are needed most.

The nurses association says that without the bill’s passage, patient safety is jeopardized due to errors and infections that they claim are tied to understaffing. “Every week we go to every Senate office with different materials,” Massachusetts Nurses Association President Beth Piknick, surrounded by a dozen nurses in scrubs, told the News Service during a midday interview in the exterior lobby to Senator Robert Hedlund’s third floor office. Piknick said the nurses have received assurances, although not directly from Senate President Therese Murray, that their proposal will emerge for a vote in the Senate, where the legislation died last session. The association’s Barbara Cooke of Taunton told the News Service that confirmation of a planned Senate vote on the bill came from “other senators that have heard it in caucus.” As the nurses were milling around, Senator Marc Pacheco, the bill’s chief sponsor, showed up. Asked about assurances of a Senate vote, Pacheco said, “That’s my understanding.”

Association officials believe the bill will pass the Senate if a vote is taken but are mindful that even a positive Senate vote on the bill may not leave the House and Senate with enough time to agree on a final bill before formal legislative sessions end this year on July 31. “We know the clock is ticking,” said Piknick. “We are concerned about the timeframe.”