St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River has been running under Brown University Health (BUH) for almost two years now.  The transition has brought many changes and challenges to the staff.  One thing that has remained constant throughout is the support of the resource nurses on each unit. BUH is planning to take away this unit-specific position as of March 27, 2026 and replace it with a position that would take the resource nurse off of the unit, leaving the work to fall on the already challenged bedside nurses.  They have stated that this arrangement has worked at Rhode Island Hospital.  Well this may work at a larger city hospital, we do not believe that it will benefit our smaller hospital. 

As a bedside nurse, I am well aware of the challenges we face during patient care.  We juggle so many things - accurately dispensing medications, dressing changes, monitoring blood sugar levels, vitals, condition changes which can be subtle but critical, communication with doctors of every specialty, making sure patients get to radiology, ensuring the labs are getting drawn on time, handling family questions and concerns, critical thinking to help and implement a plan of care for every patient.  We admit patients - having to physically transport the patient from the ED to the unit, and discharge them. And on top of all of this, we have to make sure the patient's basic needs are met - meals, fluids, toileting, comfort, and occasional tech support when their TV or cell phone isn't working.  After all of that, we have to document everything 

As the name suggests, this resource nurse provides an invaluable amount of support for bedside nurses. The resource nurse takes care of the admissions and discharges that occur during their shift, which takes approximately an hour's worth of work off the bedside nurses' plates.  That is an hour that nurses can use to take care of patients. It is an hour less of interruptions. They take handle phone calls and text messages from other departments, they help with discharge planning that the bedside nurse simply does not have time to do if they want to provide safe and thorough patient care.  According to a study done by the National Institute of Health, 90.8% of nurse medication errors are related to interruptions during administration. A med error can have serious, if not fatal, consequences.  Resource nurses help to train and educate new nurses. They schedule transportation and follow up appointments, answer phone calls, handle family questions when the nurse is busy. The resource nurse is an invaluable asset to the unit and plays a large role in overall patient safety. 

We are asking for signatures to help us keep our resource nurses on our units. Keep nurses workload manageable in order to keep our patients safe!