Nurses and Supporters of Nurses
Join the Nurses of Tufts Medical Center and St. Vincent Hospital
As they Conduct a One-Day Strike for Safe Patient Care on May 6

WHEN:
National Nurses Day, Friday, May 6, 2011
Nurses at both hospitals begin their 24-hour strike at 6 a.m.

St. Vincent Nurses Plan Public Rally at 12 noon;
Tufts Medical Nurses will hold public rally at 4 p.m.
Supporters are welcome to join the picket line at any time.

WHERE:

Tufts Medical Center
750 Washington St., Boston

St. Vincent Hospital
23 Summer St., Worcester

The registered nurses of Tufts Medical Center and St. Vincent Hospital, who are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, are both planning to hold a one-day strike on National Nurses Day, May 6, 2001 to protest dangerous patient care conditions at both facilities and to call for desperately needed improvements in RN staffing levels. This is a righteous struggle by frontline nurses to protect patients at a time when countless scientific studies clearly demonstrate that when nurses have excessive patient assignments, as is the case at these two hospitals, patients suffer a number of serious complications, are subject to longer hospital stays and experience preventable medical errors. Read more…

Pressure is building on two Democratic state Senators on the Senate Health Committee to get them to change their minds on the single payer health care bill, SB 810. The bill is scheduled for a hearing before the committee this Wednesday after being postponed from last week. Committee chairperson Sen. Ed Hernandez (Los Angeles) is publicly saying he has not decided how he will vote on the bill, while Sen. Michael Rubio (Fresno) has said he will vote “no.” If Hernandez also votes no, SB 810 will have died in the state Senate for the first time after having successfully passed the chamber the last three years. Last year, SB 810, sponsored by San Francisco-area state Sen. Mike Leno, passed the state Senate, but died in the Assembly.

The liberal grassroots advocacy group, Democracy for America, has sent out an alert to its membership calling on them to flood Hernandez and Rubio’s offices with phone calls:

“On Tuesday the Vermont Senate passed a bill that puts the Green Mountain State on the path to a single-payer health care system, and next week California’s Senate Health Committee has the same opportunity on May 4th. However, two Democratic senators could keep it from passing.

Read more…