Reporter Jonathan Saltzman at the Boston Globe writes today on the "nursing shortage," which has led 74 of the 81 OR nurses at Tufts Medical Center to issue a letter of no-confidence in their nurse manager Anna DaSilva, DNP, MBA, RN, for ongoing nursing shortages and mandatory overtime. According to the article, the nurses and the Massachusetts Nurses Association "also filed complaints with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the American College of Surgeons, the Joint Commission, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services." But what they didn't seem to file a complaint against is the Boston Globe and the rest of the nation's media, for continuing to perpetuate this incorrect idea that we have a "nursing shortage" when, in fact, what we have is a manufactured crisis by hospitals that create working conditions for nurses that are so hostile and so dangerous for patients, who could bear it for very long? There is a continuing and revolving mass exodus of nurses from hospitals because they are stretched too thin, and the conditions are dangerous for patients.
Yet because nurses are there at the end of the line, being responsible for delivering excellent care, yet are unable to do so, no one can keep their sanity in such conditions so of course they leave and go find some other line of work. Let's stop calling it a "nursing shortage" and let's start calling it the "hospital-manufactured destruction of the nursing profession," and then let's file a massive class action lawsuit and make them pay for the educations of all the nurses they have driven out of the workforce and compensation for the years spent pursuing a career that is akin to throwing yourself into a meat grinder. Kudos to the 74 courageous nurses for signing the letter of no confidence. Go nurses, go!