Workplace violence, high RN turnover, and dangerous nurse staffing conditions plague hospital
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Sept. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The registered nurses working at Marlborough Hospital, and who are unionized with the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), will hold an informational picket in front of the hospital on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The purpose of the picket is to draw public attention to the serious ongoing problems inside of the Marlborough UMass facility, including workplace violence, high RN turnover, and dangerous nurse staffing conditions.
For more than ten months, the nurses have been negotiating with hospital management to secure contract language that will address the problems plaguing the hospital. Hospital management, however, has refused to make the necessary headway to improve staffing and safety at Marlborough.
What: An informational picket in support of the Marlborough Hospital RNs, their patients, and the community
When: September 10, 2 to 4 p.m.
Where: In front of Marlborough Hospital; 157 Union Street, Marlborough
Who: MNA RNs, their families, friends, neighbors; other local unions; and elected leaders
The informational picket follows 14 negotiation sessions between the MNA RNs and management, with little movement on management’s part to address the nurses’ key concerns:
- Nurses are being injured on the job regularly due to violence, but hospital management wants to continue with its failed policies and refuses to explore new solutions.
- RN turnover in all hospital units is above average because of the significant pay discrepancies between Marlborough and other local UMass hospitals. On average, senior Marlborough Hospital RNs earn $10 per hour less than their counterparts at other area hospitals, including all UMass-affiliated hospitals
- Nurse staffing levels are unpredictable and dangerous, with as many short-term travel nurses working as permanent RNs.
- And new grads, who the hospital invests significant time and resources in, repeatedly leave for jobs at other UMass facilities because the staffing levels and pay are better.
“Marlborough Hospital is essential to the health and welfare of this community,” said Julie Lyver, RN and chairperson of the nurses’ MNA bargaining unit at Marlborough. “But at this point — with wages so low, nurse turnover so high, and in-hospital violence such a threat — if management does not agree to appropriate remedies the health and safety of this very community, and all other communities the hospital serves, is in jeopardy.”
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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 25,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
