June 2006 Inside… Single-payer health care: Honoring champions ...................2 Executive Director’s column: Inside look at safe staffing...........3 Nursing on Beacon Hill THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS NURSES ASSOTCIAATION N www.massnurses.org N VOL. 77 NO. 5 BSL-4 update ............................4 An underhanded ploy ................4 Call your state senator now! Safe staffing bill roll call.............5 Connecting with a legislator ......6 House passes redrafted safe RN staffing bill 133-20; Vote needed in Senate by mid-July Labor Education & Training “Talking Union” ..........................7 NLRB ruling favors MNA ...........7 Bargaining unit updates...............8 Health & Safety Drinking water detectives ..........9 Emergency preparednesss .......9 Workplace violence .................10 Occupational safety.................10 Worcester school RN honored ..11 MNA final ballot .........................11 Statehouse photos ...............12-13 Unit 7 consent-to-serve .............14 Travel with MNA.........................14 Peer assistance programs.........15 MNA discounts ..........................16 New CE courses...................18-19 Local RNs outside the House chamber after the House’s groundbreaking yes vote to support safe RN staffing. Regional news...........................21 Regional council ballot ..............21 Mark your calendars! This year’s MNA convention will be Oct. 4, 5 & 6 in Sturbridge. House Speaker Sal DiMasi (D- Rep. Peter Koutoujian (D- House Majority Leader John Rep. Christine Canavan (D- Details to follow! Boston) gives the thumbs up to Waltham), chair of the Public Rogers (D-Norwood) spear- Brockton), the bill’s chief a celebrating crowd of nurses Health Committee. headed negotiations. sponsor, and Rep. Geraldine as he leaves the chamber. Creedon (back, right). n May 24, the state House of Repre- move through before being voted into law. ership. “While drafting this legislation we For the latest Osentatives voted 133 – 20 to approve a The redrafted measure was crafted by made every effort to address the concerns of developments landmark bill to guarantee safe RN staffing House leadership after days of negotiations the hospitals while also addressing the real impacting nurses, in all Massachusetts hospitals. The measure between legislative leaders, the MNA and the concern that some units in some hospitals are calls upon the Massachusetts Department Massachusetts Hospital Association. “This dangerously understaffed.” visit of Public Health to set safe limits on nurses’ bill is about patient safety; it’s about saving “We are very pleased with this vote for www.massnurses.org patient assignments, prohibits mandatory lives from Boston to the Berkshires. It’s fun- patient safety,” said Beth Piknick, RN and overtime and includes initiatives to increase damentally about guaranteeing a baseline president of the MNA—one of 104 of the nursing faculty and nurse recruitment. of quality care that all citizens can depend state’s leading health care and consumer The “Patient Safety Act” has now moved on,” said Rep. Peter Koutoujian, co-chair of groups supporting the bill. The MNA had to the Senate for consideration—the second the Joint Committee on Public Health, who step of a three-step process that all bills must co-authored the redraft with House lead- See Vote, Page 6 Page 2 Massachusetts Nurse June 2006 Nurses’ guide to single-payer reform Activists gather to honor champions, support change Despite monsoon-like weather, friends insight for movement activists, and a tireless and colleagues assembled in the Dante Aligh- champion for single-payer reform. ieri Cultural Center in Cambridge on May 13 to honor the MNA’s own Peggy O’Malley, Deborah Socolar as well as Alan Sager and Debbie Socolar of For 18 years, Deborah Socolar has under- Boston University’s School of Public Health. taken research and educated the public on A special “champion of the year” award was ways to achieve equitable access to health presented to Katie Murphy, a Brigham and care for all while controlling costs, in Mas- Women’s nurse who is also a community sachusetts and nationally. She helped staff leader from Framingham. a mayoral task force in Boston that fostered This event, the eighth annual Dr. Ben- creation of the “free care pool,” and she jamin F. Gill Memorial Award Reception, played an important role in winning sub- marked a turning point in the development stantial expansion of the state’s prenatal care of a grassroots movement for fundamental coverage. Socolar has served on the national health care reform in the commonwealth to board of the Universal Health Care Action supplement the eleven-year history of the Network since 2001. Coming from a union MASS-CARE coalition. The Massachusetts family and with early roots in the labor move- Campaign for Single Payer Health Care and ment, she has played a vital role in supporting its educational/research partner, the Univer- the single-payer movement and struggles for sal Health Care Education Fund, have long progressive health care reform in Massachu- been on the cutting edge of real reform—but setts. recent developments have highlighted the Sager and Socolar have forged a power- Award recipients and keynote speakers. From left, Debbie Socolar, Katie Murphy, RN, need for a grassroots movement based in ful partnership as co-directors of the Access Peggy O’Malley, RN, Rand Wilson, Steffi Woolhandler, MD, and Diane Dujon. every legislative district in order to create and Affordability Monitoring Project, which and build a just health care system in Mas- was established in 1988 to analyze the causes sachusetts and across the country. of health care access and cost problems in Massachusetts and other states. The projects Peggy O’Malley ultimate goal: to design better ways to finance Peggy O’Malley is a front-line nurse who and deliver health care. Sager and Socolar has always combined clinical practice with are currently engaged in monitoring the political advocacy on behalf of her patients. impact of the newly-passed Massachusetts A graduate of Emmanuel College and Saint “universal” health insurance bill. Early on, Louis University, she has served as a legis- they identified its failure to link access and lative aide to Sen. Edward Burke when he cost control as a fatal flaw. was Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care, and as a bedside nurse at Katie Murphy Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She fought A special surprise award was presented to for quality care and health care justice across Katie Murphy, an ICU nurse from Brigham the negotiating table and on the picket line. and Women’s Hospital and former chair of She was one of several hundred nurses at the the Framingham Board of Selectmen, in rec- Brigham whose health was impacted by poor ognition of her outstanding advocacy work From left, Jeanine Burns, RN from Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, Kathy Evlog, indoor air quality and she developed multiple in support of S.755, An Act to Establish the RN, president of MNA Region 4, and Peggy O’Malley, RN at MASS-CARE’s ceremony. chemical sensitivities as a result. Afterwards, Massachusetts Health Care Trust. Specifi- O’Malley joined the fight to establish a safe cally, Murphy was able to testify on behalf Keynote speakers at this gala event as well as MNA researcher Roz Feldberg; work environment. She served and helped to of the solution at the bill’s all-important July included Rand Wilson, organizing director Region 4 president Cathy Evlog; Jeanine organize the nursing community throughout 20 hearing last year, as well as at a Congres- of IUE-CWA Local 201; Diane Dujon of the Burns from Addison Gilbert Hospital; and years of work at the MNA, serving on the sional hearing at Faneuil Hall on Sept. 1, 2005. College of Professional and Community Ser- Cece Buckley, co-chair at Saint Elizabeth’s Cabinet for Labor Relations and the Board Recognized in her community as fighting to vice of University of Massachusetts Boston; Hospital and past president of Region 5. Ann of Directors. In 1997, O’Malley was the first establish a community clinic in downtown and Dr. Steffi Woolhandler, an internist at Eldridge-Malone, director of the Alliance to recipient of the Judith Shindul-Rothschild Framingham, Katie was targeted for defeat in Cambridge Health Alliance and a founder of Defend Health Care and former member Leadership Award. She served as the MNA’s this past spring’s municipal election by those Physicians for a National Health Program. of MNA’s Congress on Health Policy and first vice-president after its transition in using fear of immigrants as a wedge against The nursing community and MNA also Legislation was also in attendance, as were leadership on December 1, 2000. For years, the health and well-being of us all. She con- came out in force to honor the awardees. MNA MNAers Michael Malone, Merrie Eaton and O’Malley represented the MNA on the coor- tinues to be engaged in her community and president Beth Piknick and vice president Sandy Eaton. dinating committee of MASS-CARE, and she will be heard from again and again. Donna Kelly-Williams were in attendance, chaired that body for more than 36 active and energetic months. Peggy lives in Gloucester Health care constitutional where she continues the fight to preserve vital Jobs with Justice update community hospitals as leader of the advo- amendment seeks final The focus of the Jobs With Justice (JWJ) Right!” Sen. Steve Tolman, lead sponsor of cacy group “Partners for Addison Gilbert.” vote at July 12 ConCon Health Care Action Committee over the last the amendment, told supporters “not to take few months has been to get the Health Care ‘no’ for an answer” and to continue their fight Alan Sager On July 12, the Legislature will recon- Constitutional Amendment on the ballot in to make health care a right of every resident Alan Sager, a longtime resource for the vene in Constitutional Convention to November.