The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) recently pushed the issue of nurse-patient ratios toward a ballot referendum, but settled for a compromise focused on intensive care units that one local hospital executive calls manageable. With a deal struck, the MNA then withdrew its plan to bring the issue before voters in November, which was the right thing to do.
But the MNA’s pursuit of another issue shows a clouded judgment that we cannot defend. The union’s registered nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center’s University campus recently issued a resounding vote of “no confidence” in their chief nursing officer, citing a “punitive” organizational culture and “oppressive management practices,” along with recent staff reductions.
We won’t argue with the nurses’ zeal that they want to offer top-quality care to their patients, But calling out their superior in public misses the mark. The medical center, part of the giant UMass Memorial Health Care organization, is under widely reported financial stress as it deals with many of the effects of health care reform. How management is handling that change may produce a mixed scorecard, but the union’s singling out of one person for public condemnation is the wrong approach.
