The president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association says there is no shortage of nurses in the state, just a shortage of nurses willing to work under existing staffing conditions.

Hospitals insist they are grappling with a shortage of nurses, forced to hire temporary replacements at enormous cost. A June survey of more than half the state’s acute care hospitals by the Massachusetts Hospital Association found the vacancy rate for nurses had risen from 6.4 percent in 2019 to 13.6 percent in 2022.

Katie Murphy, president of the nurses association, said there are 25,000 more licensed nurses in the state today than there were in 2019. The problem, she says, is that many of them are unwilling to work under the current conditions, which require them to care for too many patients at a time.

Murphy said some nurses are quitting or retiring, while others are going to medical school or seeking out jobs in less demanding areas of health care.  

“The reason why nurses are walking away is because the conditions in hospitals are so dire,” she said on The Codcast with Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute and John McDonough of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. 

Murphy said nurses at some hospitals are struggling to keep up with their patient loads, often with inadequate resources. She said nurses at some hospitals are being told they cannot take vacations.

“It’s really hospitals taking advantage of the fact that we’re not going to abandon our patients,” said Murphy, who works in the intensive care unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. 

Many hospitals are bolstering their nursing staff by bringing in traveling nurses, who typically come to work for temporary periods and then move on. Murphy said the traveling nurses are a symptom but not a solution to the staffing problems plaguing the health care system as a whole.

“If you bring in nurses from out of state to fill in for 12 weeks, you’re not fixing the underlying problem,” she said. “Unfortunately, patients will continue to fare poorly and hospitals will fare poorly.” 

The Massachusetts Nurses Association led the charge in 2018 for a ballot question that would have established minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, but it went down to defeat. 

Murphy blamed the loss on a massive hospital effort to defeat the measure and a report from the Health Policy Commission that said the cost of the proposed law could reach nearly $1 billion.

Hattis asked Murphy whether burnout was a problem for nurses and whether there was a way to address it. Murphy, however, objected to the term.

“Isn’t that crazy about the word burnout because that kind of puts the onus on me and the bedside nurse when really the one term that people are using more is exploitation,” she said. 

Murphy said nurses are continuing to push for a stronger voice in the workplace. “Nurses seem to have found a greater voice,” she said. “They said, ‘No, we’re the experts, we know what we need, we know what our patients need, we know what hospitals need, now you need to listen to us.’”

BRUCE MOHL

FROM COMMONWEALTH

A new front on abortion: Crisis pregnancy centers, which typically are faith-based operations, are coming under fire from abortion rights supporters who say the facilities steer pregnant women away from obtaining abortions. The centers, which confirm pregnancies and offer support and advice, are stirring emotions even in pro-choice Massachusetts, with opponents saying the facilities could mislead women coming to Massachusetts to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. So far, the only Massachusetts communities to enact ordinances cracking down on deceptive practices at pregnancy centers are municipalities that don’t have any. Read more.

Chunk of Green Line closing: The MBTA is closing a big chunk of the Green Line for a month to perform maintenance and repairs. The move comes on the heels of a decision to close the entire Orange Line for a month. T officials also announced that the opening of the Green Line extension to Medford has been put off until late November; it had been scheduled to open this month. Read more.

Eldridge restraining order denied: A Middlesex Superior Court judge denied a bid for a restraining order against Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton by Jim Lyons, the head of the Massachusetts Republican Party. Lyons sought to keep Eldridge away from signature-gathering efforts to overturn a law granting driver’s licenses to immigrants without legal status. Read more.

OPINION

She’s the boss: The Massachusetts State House Employee Organizing Committee says Senate President Karen Spilka is the boss of Senate staffers and she should talk with them about unionization. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

There will be lots of eyes on Gov. Charlie Baker this week, as he faces decisions on how to handle a slew of bills on his desk, including those related to sports betting, clean energy and offshore wind, and mental health care. (Boston Herald)  

A Berkshire Eagle editorial slams the Legislature for its inertia in allowing loads of bills to come down to the wire in the final days of the session. 

Gov. Baker signs the Beagle Bill, requiring research and testing facilities that use animals to offer healthy animals up for adoption once they are done with the research. (MassLive)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

A police sergeant in Plainfield was not reappointed after an internal report examining allegations of racism and sexual harassment. The sergeant denied the allegations. (Daily Hampshire Gazette) 

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

A new report from the Disability Law Center indicates little has been done to address long-standing problems at Bridgewater State Hospital. (WBUR)

South Shore Health will discontinue its hospice care program. (Patriot Ledger)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

The Senate passed a sweeping climate, health care, and tax bill on a strict party-line vote, delivering President Biden a big victory on his domestic agenda. (Washington Post) 

ELECTIONS

Massachusetts Women for Progress accuse Worcester Mayor Joe Petty’s Senate campaign of dishonestly using a photo from a homelessness prevention march in his campaign mailer, implying that participants are his campaign supporters. (MassLive)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

The state’s $50 million program of hiring bonuses of job training money meant to help businesses recover from pandemic was overwhelmed by demand, leaving lots of businesses empty-handed. (Boston Globe) 

Bird e-scooters come to West Springfield and immediately stir up controversy. (MassLive)

Amazon is paying $1.7 billion to buy Bedford-based iRobot. (NPR)

EDUCATION

Boston Public Schools enrollment has fallen 14 percent over the last five years. (Boston Herald)

ARTS/CULTURE

A journal documenting the first yacht trip from Salem in 1817 goes to auction. (Salem News)

TRANSPORTATION

Service across the MBTA subway system has slowed down in the face of various infrastructure problems, an analysis shows. (Boston Globe) Somerville commuters are fuming over the planned shutdown of the Green Line extension, which will coincide with the monthlong shutdown of the Orange Line. (Boston Globe) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

New Bedford Foss Marine Terminal is being prepared to become an onshore base to support offshore wind construction and operations. (Standard-Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Efforts by Transit Police officers to cover-up an incident in which one brandished a gun while in plainclothes against another driver amid a road conflict now have a spotlight on Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, whose office offered three different accounts of why charges have not been filed against one of  the officers. (Boston Globe) Hayden’s challenger in the September Democratic primary, Boston CIty Councilor Ricardo Arroyo (as well as several other local elected officials) calls on him to resign. 

A former Boston high school dean is ordered to pay $10 million to a student he tried to kill over a drug deal. (Associated Press)

Reports of people spiking drinks in bars in Boston are on the rise. (MassLive)

The Brookline police chief is placed on leave amid reports that he violated department policies against sexual harassment and discrimination. (NBC Boston)

PASSINGS

Former WBZ-TV meteorologist Bruce Schwoegler, who worked for the station for 33 years, dies at 80. (CBS Boston)