BOSTON (WHDH) - The Massachusetts Nurses Association claims registered nurses who care for patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are being told to report to work even if they have family members who tested positive for COVID-19 living with them.
In recent weeks, the union says nurses in multiple units at the hospital, including labor and delivery and the neonatal intensive care unit, have learned that immediate family members, such as a spouse or child, have been exposed to COVID-19 and test positive.
Those nurses called occupational health and/or a manager at the hospital and were reportedly told that they should report for their next shift.
“We have no closer contacts than our immediate family members,” said Trish Powers, OR/Trauma RN and Chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee. “It makes zero sense to send exposed nurses back into the hospital to care for patients. Nurses can have COVID-19 without symptoms and spread it to their patients or colleagues and back out into the community.”
Centers for Disease Control guidelines say healthcare professionals who have had “prolonged close contact” with a COVID-19 positive patient, visitor, or other healthcare professional while not wearing PPE should not work for 14 days following exposure.
There is a staffing shortage exception in the CDC guidelines, but the union says Brigham and Women’s Hospital is not currently facing staff shortages.
Nurses have also documented the hospital’s reported failure to adhere to social distancing standards.
The union is calling for the hospital to implement a change in policy and stronger safety standards employed by the CDC and the Department of Public Health.
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