Nurses at the front lines of Massachusetts’ health care system have contended with high patient load, workforce violence and hospital management concerns for years — issues they say consistently create a challenging work environment and that researchers point to as a reason behind industry workforce shortages. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents about 25,000 registered nurses and health professionals in Massachusetts, has been known to consistently sound alarms about industry issues and push for health care reform.
MNA President Katie Murphy, a full-time ICU nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is leading that push. Murphy has spent five years leading the MNA, the largest union of its kind in Massachusetts and third-largest nurses union in the nation. Later this year, Murphy will have been working in nursing for 50 years.
