September 29, 2018

Elms College School of Nursing to host panel discussion on Question 1

REGIONAL
Staff report

(IObserve photo/courtesy of Elms College)

CHICOPEE – The School of Nursing at the College of Our Lady of the Elms, in partnership with Baystate Medical Center Nursing, will host a discussion about the upcoming Massachusetts ballot question regarding nurse staffing ratios from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, in Elms College’s Veritas Auditorium.

Amanda Stefancyk Oberlies, chief executive officer of the Organization of Nurse Leaders in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Vermont, will introduce the issues surrounding Question 1, and then a panel of practicing nurses will speak and take audience questions.

The following Baystate nurses will appear on the panel: Karissa Gorman, Brittany Foley, and Tara Budriewicz.

Massachusetts Question 1, the Nurse-Patient Assignment Limits Initiative, is on the ballot in Massachusetts as an indirect initiated state statute on Nov. 6, 2018.

The Elms College School of Nursing has joined with Massachusetts nurses, hospitals, and prominent healthcare organizations in opposing Question 1, which would institute government-mandated nurse staffing levels at all hospitals statewide.

“On the surface, it might appear that using legislation to set registered-nurse-to-patient ratios would benefit patients, nurses, and hospitals, but that is not the case,” said Kathleen Scoble, dean of the School of Nursing at Elms College. “If approved, the law would require every hospital to adopt rigid registered nurse-to-patient ratios at all times – without consideration of a hospital’s size or location, and regardless of individual patients’ specific care needs.

“If this legislation is enacted, the impact will be devastating to hospitals, to the quality and safety of patient care, and to the much-respected role of the professional nurses we have been educating for decades,” said Scoble. “Thus, we believe it to be critically important to provide our community and the public at large an opportunity to truly learn about Question 1.”

The event will allow the public to hear directly from nurses and healthcare experts about the issues surrounding Question 1 and how it would affect the day-to-day practice of nursing in Massachusetts, as well as the long-term effects of such legislation on patient care and the nursing profession as a whole.