25% of MA Nurses Believe Understaffing is Killing Patients

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Thursday, May 07, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Massachusetts Nurses are claiming that staffing decisions by administrators are leading to unnecessary deaths in the Commonwealth.

In a study based on responses from 322 randomly selected registered nurses, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) is highly critical of Massachusetts hospitals and their leadership.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association vehemently challenges the MNA’s claims.

Twenty-five percent of nurses in the Bay State believe that understaffing and unsafe patient assignments are directly responsible for the deaths of patients. According to the MNA's study, the same percentage of nurses would not want family members and loved ones cared for in the units they work in.

“This study shows that nurses are reporting that things are getting worse,” said David Schildmeier, MNA Director of Public Communications. “More nurses are reporting medication errors, complications, harm or injury to patients, and patient deaths.”

The study claims, 60% of registered nurses that were polled believe that hospital administrators’ are putting patients at risk with low staffing to solely increase profits. Another 80% of RNs believe that patient care in Massachusetts is suffering due to too many patients being assigned to too few nurses at once.

They Ignore It

In an interview with GoLocalWorcester, Schildmeier said the response from Hospital Association has been more than disappointing. ”They’ve ignored it. Just like the automobile industry ignored the hundreds of thousands of deaths from preventable accidents because there weren’t seat belts or safety measures, the Hospital Association has ignored the same kind of research. Dieing in a hospital from a preventable mistake - from bad care- is now the third largest cause of death in America,” said Schildmeier.

In a statement from Hospital Association, Catherine Bromberg, Senior Director of External Communications said “The union that is promoting legislation to mandate registered nurse fixed staffing ratios and to restrict the judgment of nurses in making care decisions paid for this survey. It is not credible, and is based solely on conjecture. It is troubling that the union, to advance its political agenda, would issue such unsubstantiated safety claims that run counter to the publicly available information and evidence. There is no evidence to support the union’s claims regarding patient safety. But there is evidence that the quality of patient care in Massachusetts hospitals is of high quality.”

“Perhaps most importantly, the union does not explain or justify how their proposed legislation would improve care, because it wouldn’t improve care. It would instead damage access to high quality care, which is harmful to nurses, patients, and all the communities served by hospitals,” Bromberg said.

The Survey And Findings

“These findings provide an indictment of our system of hospital care in Massachusetts and shine the light on the really dangerous situation for our patients who are being forced to share their nurse with too many other patients at one time, which is resulting in more of them suffering totally preventable complications, medical errors, costly readmissions and, yes, even death for lack of proper care, attention and monitoring from registered nurses,” said Donna Kelly-Williams, RN, President of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and a staff nurse on the maternity unit at Cambridge Health Alliance.

The survey of nurses was conducted in early April and the respondents were randomly selected from the 92,000 nurses registered with the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. 61 percent of the respondents have no affiliation with the MNA.  According to the administrators of the survey, Anderson Robbins Research out of Boston,  the results of the survey are representative of the 92,000 nurses to within ±7% at a 95% confidence.

The report raises some alarming concerns of Massachusetts nurses, including 50 percent of nurses reporting injury and harm to patients due to understaffing in their units. An additional 56 percent of nurses report readmission of patients due to unsafe patient assignments.

Other findings from the report:

• 61 percent report medication errors due to unsafe patient assignments;
• 61 percent report complications for patients due to unsafe patient assignments;
• 81 percent report RNs don’t have the time to educate patients and provide adequate discharge planning; and  
• 86 percent report RNs don’t have the time to properly comfort and care for patients and families due to unsafe patient assignments

Hope for Legislation to Be Passed in MA

“As the nation and many employers look to National Nurses Week (May 6 – 12) to recognize the contributions of its nurses, in releasing these findings we nurses are pushing our own call button for help, in this case from the legislature who has the opportunity to address this crisis by passing legislation to ensure safe patient assignments for nurses and ensure quality patient care,” said Kelly-Williams.

Last June, GoLocalWorcester reported the MNA commissioned a similar statewide survey with nearly the same results. Last year, 23 percent of surveyed nurses believed that patients deaths could be directly connected to having too many patients to care for at one time.

“These practices are absolutely dangerous and unsafe,” said Schildmeier. “The quality of care for patients has deteriorated because there are fewer nurses in hospitals and more patients to care for.”

In January, 85 Massachusetts legislators - including State Representatives Daniel Donahue, John J. Mahoney, James O’Day and Mary Keefe and Senator Michael Moore of Worcester - petitioned for the Patient Safety Act. The Act was then referred to the Joint Committee on Public Health.

“The legislature has two years to act on legislation this session, so our hope is it would pass by July 2016,” Schildmeier told GoLocalWorcester. “The longer we wait, the more likely patients will endure harm or injury because of inaction on this issue.”

This legislation, filed by the MNA, would limit the number of patients each nurse could be assigned to at one time and would require that hospitals adjust the number of patients a nurse is assigned to based on patients needs.

According to the MNA, 88% of nurses are in support of the Patient Safety Act.

Related Articles

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• UMass Memorial Nurses Outraged Over Worsening Hospital Conditions
• Leominster Hospital Nurses Petition Proposed Staffing Cuts
• St. Vincent Nurses Demand Contract Resolution, Better Patient Care
• St. Vincent’s Nurses Ratify Three Year Contract to Improve Staffing Levels
• Leominster Hospital Nurses to Picket Opposing Dangerous Staff Cuts
• Ebola Concerns in Central MA: Nurses Demand Better Protection
• Ebola Concerns: Central MA Nurses Demand Higher Standards
• Central MA Nurses Decry Ebola Preparedness Procedures

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