Kate Higgins' Keynote at the 2015 Brigham and Women's Partners in Excellence (PIE) Awards
Channel: Jonathan Bowen
Date: 2015-01-13

Kate Higgins is my partner, a Stoughton resident, and also an amazing neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Kate was one of dozens of deserved Brigham and Women's Hospital employees to be honored with an award at the 18th Annual Partners In Excellence  (PIE) Award Ceremony in 2014 and, as a reward recipient, was asked to give the keynote address at the 19th Annual PIE Award Ceremony in 2015.

I am so proud of the care Kate provides for her patients and her patients' families everyday... I am so proud of ALL the nurses who work in the NICU at Brigham and Women's Hospital. They're all amazing people!

Massachusetts Ballot Question 1 is pitting bedside nurses against nurse managers and hospital executives. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) is spearheading the "Yes on 1" initiative. Kate happens to be, as a Brigham and Women's nurse, a member of the MNA.

I want to tackle the scaremongering on the "No on 1" side... The "No on 1" side, spearheaded by big business, is promoting the idea that patients will be turned away from hospitals if there isn't an appropriate nurse staffing level. Ask yourself this simple question... " Do you think big business would ever turn away the opportunity to make a buck?"

Why do I support a "Yes on 1" vote? My reasoning is mostly selfish, that's true, but my reasoning is also selfless. I, as a patient in a hospital, would want as many eyeballs on me if I were in a life or death situation but I also would want that for every other patient too.

Doctors, as many people think, do not provide direct care within inpatient settings but nurses do. Nurses check on patients frequently but doctors don't. Doctors treat the illness but nurses treat the patient...

In 2017, Kate and I lost our two-month-old son, J.C., in a Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) event. We were in the hospital, with our son on life support, for four tortuous days. It was the nurses who we connected with because they were in the room with us far more often then the doctors. We will never forget the care and compassion they provided during the hardest days of our lives.

This is a fight between big business and big government... It's that simple. Which side do you trust more?

I, in this case, trust big government.

My three-year-old daughter Grace attends the Old Colony YMCA in Stoughton and I am so happy with the care the teachers and staff provide to my daughter. They are amazing caregivers and are teaching my daughter socialization skills and more everyday. Did you know the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires student-to-teacher ratios?

Why doesn't the Commonwealth of Massachusetts require nurse-to-patient ratios? What is the message that our government is sending us? We care for the future but we don't care for the infirm and sick because they're our past? Why is that?

Is money the answer? Is our government telling us that kids equal future tax revenue while the sick and infirmed equal no future tax revenue and more current tax burden? Think about that...

Think about the nurses themselves... Think about nurse health and safety. Did you know that the Economic Policy Institute released a study of California nurses in 2015 which showed that nurse injuries have been reduced by 30% since the State of California enacted its nurse-to-patient ratio law in 2004? Nurses get hurt everyday by interacting with patients. Do you care about nurses’ health and safety?

What irks me personally is that Kate sat between Betsy Nabel and Gary Gottlieb; they praised Kate, you'll see them at the end of the video, and now they're surreptitiously fighting against "Yes on 1".

Who are Betsy Nabel and Gary Gottlieb? Betsy Nabel is the President of Brigham Health which includes Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital; she earned $5,500,000 in 2014. Gary Gottlieb is the former President and CEO of Partners HealthCare and now the CEO of Partners In Health; he earned $2,610,000 in 2013.

Kate makes a good living as a union nurse but many nurses aren't as fortunate as Kate. Most nurses in Massachusetts aren't represented by unions. Maybe that should change?

Partners Healthcare, in fact, has been quietly trying to bust the MNA union. The nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital have had to threaten strikes repeatedly and may have to do it again in the future. The nurses are only trying to hold onto the benefits they have clawed to win...

Here are my honest answers to some basic questions I pose...

Will patients who need emergency care be turned away from hospitals? No. Will we see hospital closures? Maybe? Will we see better healthcare at hospitals that remain open if "Yes on 1" passes? ABSOLUTELY! Is life too expensive? NEVER!

Please don't let The Boston Globe's endorsement of a "No on 1" vote sway your conscience. Don't let the deceptive advertisements by the falsely named Coalition to Protect Patient Safety campaign sway your conscience. Don't let your family and friends die...