STATE HOUSE, BOSTON A member of Senate President Therese Murray’s leadership team predicted Thursday that the Senate would support blocking a Patrick administration move to shutter Taunton State Hospital, a mental health facility that serves the state’s southeast region.

MUSKEGON – Registered nurses from Mercy Health Partners’ Hackley campus delivered a 6 foot high petition today to the office of Roger W. Spoelman, President and CEO of the health system. The petition boasted hundreds of signatures from Hackley nurses requesting safe care for their patients.

Mandatory overtime was a common complaint among Texas nurses a few years ago. They said that being required to tack on extra hours or shifts left many of them exhausted, contributed to errors and accidents and made family responsibilities difficult.

LANSING – More than 500 nurses and nursing students from across Michigan rallied at the Capitol today, advocating for policies and priorities to heal their patients and communities. This year’s event focused on the introduction of the Safe Patient Care Act, long-overdue legislation to require Michigan hospitals to provide minimal nursing staff in order to protect patients’ care and safety.

Nurses in Minnesota are fighting against an irresponsible ‘Right to Work’ amendment that would make it more difficult for RNs to bargain for safe staffing levels, for construction workers to ensure safe worksites and for emergency responders, like police and firefighters, to negotiate for things that keep us all safe—like faster response times and life-saving emergency equipment.