MNA/NNU Nursing Practice Alert!
Board of Registration in Nursing is
Attempting to Undermine Our Profession
Seeks Changes in Nurse Practice Act to
Allow Unlicensed Personnel to Administer
Medications in All Settings, Including Hospitals
Join Our Campaign to Stop This Dangerous Proposal!
Attend the Next BORN Meeting on March 13
Attend the Next BORN Meeting on March 13
WHAT: The Board of Registration in Nursing (BORN), which oversees the licensure of nurses in the Commonwealth, and the regulations governing your nursing practice, is engaged in a dangerous effort to amend the Nurse Practice Act (the law that dictates your role and responsibilities as a registered nurse) to allow RN’s to delegate medication administration and other procedures (such as wound care and tube feedings) to unlicensed personnel in all settings, including long term care, home care, schools and acute care hospitals.
Medication administration is a complex procedure that demands the skilled assessment and monitoring that only RNs can provide. This proposal is nothing short of an all out attack on your nursing practice. It will mean reduced RN staffing. It will mean greater reliance on unlicensed personnel, greater liability for nurses and dramatically unsafe conditions for patients.
The BORN is moving quickly to make these changes and we expect it to be discussed at the next monthly BORN meeting on March 13. We need to show up in force at that meeting and at a subsequent public hearing on this issue to show our strong opposition to this ludicrous proposal!
WHEN: Wednesday, March 13, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (if you can’t stay for the entire meeting, come for some portion of it and wear your scrubs so they know frontline nurses are standing up against this proposal)
WHERE: BORN, 239 Causeway Street, Boston MA 02114. (Across from the TD Garden, a block or two east of North Station)
BACKGROUND: Last year, BORN released a report recommending that RN delegation to unlicensed personnel be permitted across all clinical settings. MNA fought back and squelched that effort, but the BORN is back once again with this proposal.
ANTICIPATED NEXT STEPS: Attend the BORN meeting on March 13. If you can’t make the meeting, please call AND email BORN Executive Director Rula Harb at 617-973-0907; rula.f.harb@state.ma.us. Tell her you are a registered nurse in Massachusetts and you strongly oppose any effort by the BORN to change the Nurse Practice Act to allow the delegation of medication administration to unlicensed personnel.
Please share this email and information with all your nursing colleagues, and encourage them to join our effort to stop this proposal. Visit our website, www.massnurses.org; or our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/massnurses for further developments.
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