Central MA Nurses Decry Ebola Preparedness Procedures

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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Nurses from across the nation have come together in saying that there has not been proper training or equipment distributed to properly prepare hospitals to deal with a potential Ebola case, and Central Massachusetts is no different.

Nurses from many of the hospitals in Central Massachusetts have been outspoken in saying that they have not received enough training and they do not feel safe with the amount of protective ear that they have been given.

“The nurses at my hospital are very worried; this whole thing is pretty scary,” said Lynne Starbard, RN, Maternity Nurse at UMass Memorial Medical Center’s Memorial Campus and Co-Chair of the nurses local bargaining unit. “We want to be able to provide the best care to patients while also protecting ourselves, but there is no way we can do this because we don’t have the proper training or equipment at our disposal to be able to. Our hospital has had two one-hour training sessions; sessions that most nurses said weren’t that helpful.”

In addition to the UMass Memorial system, nurses from many of the other hospitals have also said that they don’t currently feel safe if a potential Ebola patient was to present themselves at their hospital.

Contradictory Statements

At a recent Massachusetts public hearing on Ebola preparedness, UMass Memorial President Patrick Muldoon was testifying about how his hospital was prepared to handle the Ebola epidemic, but David Schildmeier, Director of Public Communications with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, found the whole situation to be ironic and contradictory.

As Muldoon was speaking, Schildmeier received a text message from a nurse in the UMass Memorial system who was outraged and concerned that she was not only not properly educated to deal with a potential Ebola patient, but also that the triage unit was so understaffed that she wouldn’t have anyone to assist her.

“While he was testifying about how UMass Memorial is properly prepared to handle a potential Ebola patient, I received a text message from a nurse saying that she wasn’t trained and didn’t have the proper equipment,” said Schildmeier. “This illustrates the disconnect between what hospital and state officials are saying about Ebola preparedness and what is happening on the ground.”

Working to Improve

While there is a lot of negative attention in terms of hospitals and how prepared they are to handle Ebola, Schildmeier says that some local hospitals are making efforts to improve.

Citing Saint Vincent Hospital as one example, Schildmeier says that many of the hospitals in Central Massachusetts are beginning to work with nurses and MNA to better prepare nurses for a potential Ebola case. While certainly late in the game, Schildmeier and nurses throughout Central Massachusetts are glad that hospitals are starting to open their eyes.

“We are openly demanding these changes both on a statewide and a national level,” said Schildmeier. “There are hospitals that are working to make the changes in Central Massachusetts and we certainly hope that procedures are improved immediately. I think that the situation that happened in Texas was a real wake up call; hospitals are finally starting to make positive steps forward.”

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