The Garlick Press – Thursday, May 6, 2021

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

It is with great pride that I share with you on National Nurses Day that I am a Registered Nurse. And it is with great awe and humility that I have witnessed my nurse colleagues bear such great responsibilities during the COVID19 worldwide pandemic. “To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all they go through; is to be a nurse.” -Rawsi Williams

The Nurses of our Commonwealth have been heroic, but they are not heroes- they are human beings who have been extraordinary in the worst possible circumstances and they are calling to us for help. 503 Massachusetts Registered Nurses, (53% not in the Mass. Nurses Assoc.) responded in the Beacon Research survey that some of the major challenges they faced during Covid included delays in receiving proper protective equipment and training in infectious diseases, insufficient staff and increase in mandatory overtime. Nearly one fifth of the nurses stated they had contracted Covid and nearly 75% report they got it at work.

These same nurse colleagues and all their co-workers are witnessing a rise in workplace violence. Nearly six in ten report personally encountering at least one instance of workplace violence or abuse in the last two years. Ever present workplace violence has been exacerbated during Covid through the increase in societal anxiety, fear, tension and increases in mental health, substance use and behavioral health needs. I am the chief sponsor on a bill to develop and implement workplace violence prevention programs.

So today, when you think of nurses- ordinary human beings doing extraordinary work at great personal and professional cost, listen to their calls for help. Support the nurses on Day 60 of the St. Vincent Hospital strike calling for safe staffing- not a “Cadillac” plan but one just like the hospital down the street at UMass Memorial. Support legislation for the prevention of workplace violence.

And when you talk to the Nurse in your life, acknowledge their fears, their personal costs, their great striving to protect not only their patients but their profession, their suffering, pain and bone-deep fatigue and truly thank them for always helping us with ours.