Unionized nurses and other frontline caregivers at Women & Infants Hospital are calling on management to address staffing shortages that are expected to be especially acute during the holidays.
“Right now there’s such a nursing shortage that it’s very hard to even staff this hospital appropriately,’’ Dana Carcieri, a nurse who worked 26 years in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, said during an informational picket outside the hospital on Friday. ”Now comes the holidays where people want to take vacation time. And there’s not enough staff on the units.”
Nancy Chandley Adams, a lactation consultant, said short-staffing means that nurses don’t have enough time to help new mothers learn to breastfeed, which research shows is healthier than formula for newborns.
“You can’t rush a newborn to latch to the breast,’’ Adams said. “Because they [nurses] are so busy, and they need to make sure that that baby is fed, we default to giving a supplement of formula.’’
The staffing problem is especially acute during the holidays, when nurses with more seniority take time off, leaving their less experienced colleagues working without needed support, said Rosario Parente, a nurse who has worked at the hospital for 23 years. Parente said the lack of support for newer nurses, in turn, makes it harder to retain new recruits.
“Young nurses…they last six months a year, and they just want to leave,’’ Parente said, “just because the pressure is so high.”
Parente and dozens of other nurses and caregivers joined co-workers in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199 NE, which represents 1,700 frontline caregivers at Women & Infants. The hospital is operated by Care New England, the state’s second-largest health system.
For the last six months, unionized hospital staff have been asking to create a Patient Care Council as part of their contract “to address short and long term staffing and patient care issues,” the SEIU said in a statement. “The employer has refused to allow the process to move forward, attempting to limit which union delegates can be present, a violation of the contract.”
On Friday, Care New England spokeswoman Raina C. Smith said in a statement that
Women & Infants is “engaged in discussions together to create the best staffing plans for the holiday season, and enhance our process for a patient care council.”
The hospital’s operator said that “all patient services are open, we are staffed to provide quality patient care, and there will be no disruption to that care.’’
Last March, the SEIU said that 95% of its participating members voted “no confidence” in the hospital’s management, following persistent staffing shortages, unresolved grievances and arbitrations, and “an ongoing lack of clear, respectful communication.’’
Health reporter Lynn Arditi can be reached at larditi@thepublicsradio.org
