CANTON, Mass – The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) – the most powerful and effective voice on nursing and healthcare in the Commonwealth – has endorsed U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for re-election because Sen. Warren understands and takes a proactive approach to addressing the challenges facing nurses and healthcare professionals.
“The MNA and our 25,000 nurses and healthcare professionals are proud to stand with Elizabeth Warren as she fights for the issues that matter most to caregivers and our patients,” said Katie Murphy, ICU RN, and president of the MNA. “Senator Warren has long been a strong advocate for safe patient care, healthcare violence prevention, and the preservation of essential healthcare services. We join the senator in her efforts to rein in corporate power, rebuild the middle class, and support Massachusetts families.”
“Massachusetts nurses are not only frontline workers who made tremendous sacrifices during the pandemic, but they save lives every single day,” said U.S. Senator Warren. “I am honored to earn their support for reelection, and I will never stop fighting hard for working people and middle-class families in the Senate. For years, I’ve fought back against corporate interests in health care, and I’m proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the MNA. We’ve made real progress, but we still have much work to do to empower workers, raise wages, and create a more just and healthy society. I’m in this fight all the way.”
Key MNA nurse and healthcare professional issues Sen. Warren supports:
• A limit on how many patients a nurse must care for at one time.
o Sen. Warren endorsed the MNA’s safe patient limits ballot question in 2018.
• Protections regarding scope of practice for nurses.
• Safe patient handling legislation to reduce the number of healthcare lifting injuries.
• Efforts to rid the Massachusetts healthcare system of RN mandatory overtime.
• MNA nurse and healthcare professional bargaining units in their fights for fair contracts.
o Sen. Warren has supported St. Vincent Hospital nurses on strike in 2021, Tufts Medical Center nurses on strike in 2017, helped avert a potential strike by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2016, and assisted nurses in numerous other instances.
• Efforts to save hospitals and hospital units facing closures.
o Sen. Warren has been a powerful advocate on behalf of Steward Healthcare patients, staff, and communities potentially affected by the for-profit company’s bankruptcy. She also joined the fight to save the North Shore Birth Center, North Adams Regional Hospital, the Leominster Hospital maternity unit, among others.
The MNA was one of the first organizations to endorse Elizabeth Warren during her initial campaign for U.S. Senate in 2012 because of her dedication to limiting corporate power and strengthening America’s middle class, including by providing jobs at living wages for everyone, creating a secure retirement system that allows everyone to live out their lives with dignity, and establishing a just taxation system where corporations and the extremely wealthy pay their fair share.
“Elizabeth Warren has spent her time in the U.S. Senator fighting for working class families, meaningful financial reform and consumer protection,” said MNA President Murphy. “We look forward to Senator Warren continuing that important work while also being an ally for nurses, healthcare professionals, and our patients.”
Founded in 1903, the MNA created the Nurse Practice Act, the RN license designation, developed a uniform curriculum for the education of nurses, wrote the first code of ethics for nurses and passed, or helped to pass, nearly every state law governing nursing practice including the law allowing nurses to unionize in Massachusetts.
Today, the MNA represents more than 25,000 nurses and healthcare professionals working in 85 health care facilities, including 51 acute care hospitals, as well as a growing number of nurses and health professionals working in schools, visiting nurse associations, public health departments and state agencies.
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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 25,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
