SUPPORTING THE MASSACHUSETTS NURSES ASSOCIATION’S NURSING CAMPAIGN FOR SAFE PATIENT LIMITS

WHEREAS, more than a decade of studies have linked inadequate nurse staffing to increases in patient complications, infections and even mortality rates, as well as nurse burnout and injury rates; and

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers has supported nurse-driven campaigns to enact safe patient limits in collective bargaining language and state and national policy; and

WHEREAS, the AFT, at its 2014 convention, enacted a resolution to support state and national laws that would require a safe number of registered nurses to be available to provide quality patient care; and

WHEREAS, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is conducting a grass-roots campaign to enact a ballot initiative—Question 1, the Patient Safety Act—that would establish safe patient limits for all patients in every hospital in Massachusetts; and

WHEREAS, AFT healthcare affiliates have also been campaigning in their own states and locals for collective bargaining agreements and policy initiatives that ensure safe patient limits and the involvement of frontline nurses in establishing and monitoring patient care and safety in hospitals and healthcare institutions; and

WHEREAS, winning this ballot initiative will help with efforts to win safe patient limits:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers supports and endorses the Massachusetts Nurses Association’s drive to win passage of Question 1 on the ballot on Nov. 6 in Massachusetts; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will recruit volunteers to help with the get-out-the-vote operation for Question 1; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will encourage volunteer phone banking among members to support Question 1; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will communicate its endorsement to members residing in Massachusetts.