Dolores Mary Conway: Cooley Dickinson nurses deserve a fair contract

As a retired nurse, 47-year career, I am writing in support of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital nurses who are currently in contract negotiations. Having spent my entire career as a bedside nurse, my choice, working various hospital departments, I have seen the value a nurse brings to every department. There have been many advances and changes in health care but the one constant is the nurse who cares for each patient and their family.

A person does not enter the nursing profession for monetary compensation. They enter because they want to offer care and compassion to ease someone’s pain, support a woman giving birth, offer comfort to a dying patient. Cooley Dickinson nurses are dedicated to their profession, patients, the community and the hospital. They are only asking for the same respect from the administration. They want appropriate nurse/patient ratios, safe staffing, health care benefits and a fair wage. Please tell me why the CEO of Mass General Brigham, which is affiliated with Cooley Dickinson, needs a $6 million yearly salary with bonuses and yet is attempting to cut health care benefits to the working nurse and diminish staffing levels?

During COVID when nurses were at the bedside, wearing protective gear, caring for infected patients, putting their own lives at risk, the hospital administration was safely entrenched in their offices on Zoom meetings. The CEO of Cooley Dickinson started his career as a bedside nurse, advanced to his present position through hard work and education. Did he forget why he chose this career? Cooley Dickinson is enhancing their Emergency Department to better serve the community but if there are not enough nurses to staff it, what happens then?

The structure of any hospital is only as good and strong as the base upon which it is built and nurses, along with all the support staff, are the base of Cooley Dickinson. I urge the community which the hospital serves to support the nurses as they negotiate for safe staffing, no cuts to their hours of work, health care benefits and a fair wage.

Dolores Mary Conway

Easthampton