The shortage is not just about sheer numbers of nurses, employers say. In some ways, the problem has brought nurses' unions and employers together. But the shortage also has made nurses more aggressive in protesting their working conditions. Nurses went on strike to win limits on mandatory overtime at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester last year, but the issue is widespread. At Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, for instance, the Massachusetts Nurses Association negotiating chairwoman, Cece Crowell, receives four or five formal complaints a month from nurses worried they will make an error while working mandatory overtime shifts or handling too many patients.
Employers also find themselves wrestling each other for nurses.
It is telling that even prestigious hospitals like Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts General have felt the pinch, and are relying on temporary nurses for some positions and reaching into their relatively deep pockets for bonuses and raises. That has helped the hospital cut its vacancy rate to 5 percent even while adding nurse positions. So the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston is playing hardball. Some hospitals are reversing nursing cuts made in the last decade. Troubles in health care would never dissuade her from nursing, she said.