Massachusetts Nurses Association

“During the fiscal year 2022, mna made the following changes to its by-laws. Article i, title, mission, purpose, and function section 3: the purpose of the mna, unrestricted by consideration of nationality, race, creed, religion, lifestyle, color, sex, gender, gender identity, disability, or age, shall be to: a. Work for the improvement and availability of health care services for all people. B. Foster high standards of nursing practice, education, research, and nursing administration. C. Promote the professional development of nurses. D. Advance the economic and general welfare of nurses. E. Act and speak for nurses in massachusetts. Article vi, standing committees section 2: composition a. The finance committee shall consist of five members of the board of directors, four of whom shall be from the collective bargaining unit positions, one of whom shall be the treasurer, who shall act as chair, and five mna members-at-large, three of whom shall be from the collective bargaining units. Members shall be appointed by the president with the approval of the board of directors. B. The committee on nominations and elections and the bylaws committee shall each consist of five members, who shall be elected by the membership, with representation from each region. C. A vacancy on any standing committee shall be filled by appointment by the board of directors within 60 days of the existence of the vacancy. Article vi, standing committees, section 5: responsibilities a. The bylaws committee shall: (1) recommend to the board of directors for adoption the policies, procedures and timeline for submission of proposed amendments to the bylaws. (2) receive or initiate proposed amendments to the bylaws of the mna from regional councils, the board of directors and structural units of the mna. (3) report its recommendations to the board of directors and the voting body at the annual business meeting and any special business meeting at which the membership will vote on any proposed bylaw amendment or amendments. (4) review all policies for congruency with existing bylaws. B. The nominations and elections committee shall: (1) publish a list of incumbent officers and members of the board of directors with their respective regions and a statement as to which are eligible for re-election. (2) establish and publicize the deadline for submission of nominations and consent-to-serve form. (3) actively solicit and receive nominations from all regional councils, congresses, standing committees and individual members in good standing. All nominations must be accompanied by a written consent-to-serve form. (4) prepare a list of candidates that shall be geographically representative of the state with one or more candidates for each office. (5) report to the membership and the board of directors the list of positions to be elected to each office, for which there are vacancies for which there are vacancies for which no consents to serve have been submitted. Included in the list shall be candidates for the officers, members of the board of directors, bylaws committee, and nominations and elections committee. (6) all submitted consents to serve will be posted on the mna website within twenty-four hours of receipt during normal business hours. (7) after the deadline for submission of nominations and consents to serve, prepare and present to the ballot to the mna board of directors and to the membership. Article xiv, meetings and voting body section 9: electronic meetings a. Participation in meetings of the annual business meeting, special business meetings, and meetings of the board of directors, standing committees, congresses, task forces, centers, and committees, and regional councils may be via telephone or other electronic means provided all members participating can hear and speak to each other simultaneously.”

“The mna is directed and run by the membership with an elected board of directors and a grassroots organizational structure. With regional councils in five different regions of the state, members have an opportunity to become involved in the mna on local issues and concerns. The mna also provides members with an opportunity to influence nursing and other healthcare issues on a national level.”

“The members vote for their board of directors and make governing decisions at their annual convention.”

“The members vote for their board of directors and make governing decisions at their annual convention.”

“The board of directors has delegated the responsibility for reviewing, approving and signing the form 990 to the president. The form 990 is made available to any director upon request.”

“The massachusetts nurses association has a conflict of interest policy in place. Annually each board member is required to disclose if there are any conflicts. The board reviews the disclosures and takes whatever action is needed to resolve the conflict.”

“The board of directors determines the compensation for their organization's president, directors and management. This process includes review and approval by independent persons, comparability data, and contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and decision.”

“The organizational governing documents, financial statements and form 990 are available upon request to the general public.”

“The mission of the mna, the association for registered nurses, is to preserve the identity, integrity, and continuity of professional nursing in the commonwealth of massachusetts. The purpose of the mna, unrestricted by consideration of nationality, race, creed, religion, lifestyle, color, sex, handicap, or age, shall be to: - work for the improvement and availability of health care services for all people. - foster high standards of nursing practice, education, research and nursing administration. - prpmote the professional development of nurses. - advance the economic and general welfare of nurses. - act and speak for registered nurses in massachusetts. The functions of the mna shall be to improve the profession by: - providing for quality in nursing practice by promoting the implementation of standards for nursing practice and standards for nursing services. - providing for quality in nursing education by promoting standards for nursing education (undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education) - promoting and providing for the professional, economic, and general welfare of nurses through the development and implementation of standards. - promoting and providing for the continuing education of nurses through the implementation of standards for continuing education in nursing. - informing both the nurse and society of the profession's expectations and requirements in ethical matters.”

“Division of nursing: during the past year, in addition to our continued attention toward ensuring the health and safety of our members as they continue to weather the repercussions of the covid pandemic. The division redoubled our efforts to adapt to the constraints of covid on in-person classes pivoting to offer our members the highest quality continuing education courses through virtual offerings. In addition to virtual offerings, the division increased the number of offerings available through our online hippotlian platform offering high-quality enduring educational programs that impact the health and safety needs of frontline nurses amidst the covid-19 global pandemic. Region & online programs fall 2021-spring 2022: the division resumed in-person offerings in the fall of 2021. Region and live virtual offerings included: fading memories: meeting the global care needs of persons living with the challenges of dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder: trauma and survival, the nurse's role in suicide prevention: shifting the perspective from despair to hope; when today is all you have; nursing and mental healthcare worker resiliency during the pandemic; the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lyme disease and tick-borne diseases; workers compensation in the existing healthcare environment; nursing management of the critically ill covid 19 patient: evolving best practices; responding to an unsafe patient assignment: legal, moral and practical implications; addressing substance use in the workplace; nursing considerations in the management of patients with antibiotic-resistant infections; nursing malpractice: your best defense is a good documentation offense; advanced cardiac life support the division adapted our services to meet the needs of our members while adapting to covid constraints. O 1,494 individuals participated in our live virtual and in-person programs. O 2,079 members in total participated in our online programs. O 31 online courses were made available to members through our hippotlian online service. Online courses examples include: migraine headache attacks: enhance nursing knowledge; leadership lessons learned: ten tips to self-actualization; parkinson's disease: a nursing perspective; whether or not: how the environment affects patient care and what you need to know; care of the patient with ptsd; total knee arthroplasty; total hip arthroplasty; racism and social injustice in nursing practice and healthcare; budding evidence for cannabis and its implications in perioperative and acute care setting, etc. The 15th annual clinical nursing conference was presented as a weeklong virtual event from may 2-6th. The first day was presented as a live virtual event with a focus on the impact and aftershock of the covid pandemic on healthcare providers and their families. In addition to the live virtual offering, 5 additional cne's were released on the hippotlian online portal. Career services: the division continues to serve as a resource for nurses and new grad transitioning in their roles or careers. The staff has responded to multiple requests throughout the year. Requests in order of priority were assisting st. Vincent nurses with resume writing and job searches; assisting nurses returning to practice; refresher courses; selection of a nursing program; assistance with resume development and career options; degree options; nursing scholarships and loan forgiveness. Consultation: the division staff work closely with every division and serve as resources on policy and clinical practice issues. The consultation role for practice issues is a formal/informal process in the division of nursing. The associate directors are assigned to teams but work together for complex issues. The covid-19 pandemic has resulted in all staff becoming actively involved in supporting frontline nurses in issues related to health and safety, personal protective equipment, staffing during and beyond the pandemic, and supporting the mental healt”

“Division of health & safety: the division of health & safety associate directors act as a resource, consultant, and educator for mna members, members of the nursing community, healthcare organizations and other staff on a wide variety of health & safety related topics. The division primarily focused on issues related to covid-19 that impacted nurses at the bedside. Due to the covid-19 outbreak planned programs were diverted and our focus changed to meet the immediate needs of the memberships' educational and other needs resulting from the global pandemic. The pandemic has contributed towards the current challenges and working conditions that workers encounter daily. For example, increase in workplace violence with reports of daily assaults on staff, staffing crisis and other health and safety issues. The division provided webinars and educational programs that meet the american nurses credentialling center's criteria within an online platform. We continued to address the culture of safety, work-related violence, hostile work environments, bullying, infectious diseases, workplace environmental exposures/hazards, indoor air quality, respiratory protection, workers' compensation, etc. O we have participated on the massachusetts governor's executive committee 511 to continue to bring osha safety regulations to the public sector and municipal workers. Associate directors from the division have collaborated with osha to discuss the problem of workplace violence. We have taken part in the ergonomic task force with dph for safe patient handling education. Mna is also involved with prevention initiatives dealing with sharps injuries among health care workers. Division of health & safety: o maintained up to date covid-19 information on the mna website and promoted self-help and support resources for members throughout the pandemic o provided expertise and guidance to the various unions regarding, "covid-19 & vaccine hesitancy" o published a white paper generated from the 6/15/2021 international covid-19 conference titled, "covid-19 lessons learned: a global perspective". O our "code gray" policy and plan for hospitals to customize preventing workplace violence continues to be requested and distributed to both member and non-member facilities o developed informational booklet for healthcare worker resiliency during the pandemic o ongoing work with the university of massachusetts boston's institutional review board that was approved in march 2021 to study, "examining occupational safety & health administration (osha) recordkeeping data to determine trends in worker injuries & illnesses related to covid-19", which will utilize various hospitals osha logs to collect necessary data. Workplace violence and prevention task force activities: o developed recommended language for bargaining unit contracts regarding workplace violence o updated the "actions you should take if assaulted at work" for online access and distribution to members o continue to collect data to identify and analyze trends which can lead to safer practice recommendations from the online workplace violence reporting form o a significant increase in assaults and severity continues for patients and staff o involved with initiating legal actions across the commonwealth with various district attorney offices o the task force assisted members who were assaulted by providing support and assisting with securing counseling for those who were having difficulty locating services during the pandemic workplace violence prevention bill: division of health & safety identified and selected mna members and other nurses to provide virtual testimony for a hearing in support of the workplace violence prevention bill. The mna division of health & safety continues to be a leader in education and legislative action involving workplace violence prevention. The role mna plays regarding the protection of healthcare workers is recognized both state-wide and nationally. The division of health & safety”

“Division of labor action: i. Mass general brigham (formally partners) a. Dana farber cancer institute -merrimack valley the nurses organized and won a nlrb election. We have received our bargaining unit certification from the nlrb and issued the demand to bargain with an information request. B. Newton-wellesley hospital the committee reached a tentative agreement for a two-year contract c. Martha's vineyard hospital reached a tentative agreement for a two-year deal. D. Cooley dickinson hospital reached and ratified a tentative agreement that restructures the wage scale and provides some offset payments of those paying more for health insurance in 2022 than non-union staff. E. Cooley dickinson vna & hospital ratified a tentative agreement. F. Brigham & women's hospital reached a tentative agreement on april 18, 2022, for a 2-year deal. Ii. Public sector-unit 7/cambridge health alliance a. Unit 7 we reached a tentative agreement on august 24, 2021, that ratified last september b. Cambridge health alliance (cha) the three (3) mna committees reached a tentative agreement with cha on august 30, 2022. The agreement of one year. Iii. Cape cod healthcare a. The two (2) cape cod vna bargaining units completed and ratified a new single contract and also dovetailed seniority within cape cod vna. Iv. Umass a. Leominster conditions have not improved. Grievances on staffing have been won resulting in multiple monetary awards for members. Bargaining will begin in the upcoming year and a lack of trust will be one of the greatest barriers to a peaceful resolution. B. Burbank and clinton nurses settled new agreements with significant raises and were overwhelmingly ratified. C. Marlborough nurses bargained a new agreement which provided much needed raises. The committee was very happy to see a smooth process and the membership ratified a strong contract. D. Umass memorial & umass university landmark agreement which boosted wages nearly 20% by 2024. By the end of the contract nurses in worcester will be closer than ever to reaching parity with the standard set by our fellow members in boston. V. Southcoast a. St. Luke's hospital at the beginning of 2022 nurses at st. Luke's hospital finally have a contract!! After over a decade of attempting to build a union the nurses at st. Luke's hospital formed their union in the waning days of 2018, bargained a first contract in a pandemic, survived a national right to work funded decertification attempt, protested, picketed, called on the community and settled a strong first contract! B. Tobey hospital with two rounds of ratification votes the tobey nurses have a new wage scale and go to the table in 2023 with a renewed strength. C. St. Vincent's after the 301 day the strike ended with st. Vincent nurses walking in together, not all of them returning but no one left behind! A deal brokered by u.s. Secretary of labor marty walsh, maintained all the gains of the strike, and ensured every nurse would have the right to return. Inside the hospital, the national right to work foundation was waiting for them with a dastardly decertification attempt. Despite managements' best efforts to run a fraud election they could not overcome the unity of the st. Vincent nurses vi. Independents a. Atrius atrius members settled a strong contract ahead of the deadline they had set for themselves! Boston vna rns and hcps a. Health professionals at the boston vna have a contract! Bargaining for a first contract with the vna care system and their notorious union busting law firm jackson lewis was a trial, but the health professionals never faltered. They took to the streets in 2021 with a unanimous weeklong strike and held the line every day! Days apart, the rns and health professionals had separate agreements and at a joint ratification it was overwhelmingly approved by both units! Vii. Western mass a. Baystate franklin medical center bfmc nurses and our committee have had eight months of challenging negotiations. The new contract”

“There was no change in the oversight process or selection process during the tax year.”

“The 990 is prepared on the same basis as the financial statements which are prepared on the modified cash basis of accounting. The consolidated financial statements of the association are presented on a modified cash basis, whereby the association's dues income is recognized when received rather than when earned. All other income is recorded when earned and expenses are recorded as incurred.”