By Sandy Eaton, RN

I was sitting in the State House balcony on May 22 watching the House vote on our patient safety bill when I started thinking about the forces that helped bring us there. Sitting next to me was Sue Kirby from the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, whose members played such an important role in constituent visits with our senators. Then I got the May/June issue of the Massachusetts Nurse Advocate. On the front cover was a picture of the State House steps taken on Nurses Day – it included John McCormack, co-chair of the Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Patients, and Jeff Crosby, president of the North Shore Labor Council, surrounded by front-line nurses and healthcare professionals.

Year by year, our involvement in central labor councils deepens – in Pittsfield and Worcester, in Boston and Lynn – as actions of mutual support breed bonds of respect. Our long-term involvement in such coalitions as Jobs with Justice and Mass-Care has earned broad commitment to our patient and nurse protection agenda. Our key role in the campaigns to pass the omnibus health reform Question 5 on the 2000 Massachusetts ballot and to amend the state constitution to make access to quality, affordable health insurance the right of all residents helped make us central to initiatives to construct a just healthcare system. Groups as diverse as the League of Women Voters and the Coalition for Social Justice stand with us. At contract time and in the Legislature, we can count on active support from our allies, just as they can count on us.

Last October, when we picketed the Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company in Springfield in defense of our members exploited by Bay State Medical Center, a number of local high school students joined us, crossing Main Street to march with us in solidarity. Perhaps some of them, if able to complete their education, will join our ranks in a few years. Opportunities will continue to arise where we fight the good fight ourselves and extend a hand to those whose goals overlap with our own.