“We found reasonable cause to believe the unfair labor practices alleged in the complaint occurred,’’ Robert P. Redbord, deputy regional attorney for the NLRB, said yesterday. The board has scheduled a Feb. 14 hearing on the complaint against Steward before an NLRB administrative judge.
Steward denied the allegations and said it was confident the board would support its decision to fire Ramirez when the facts are presented.
“Participation in union organizing activities played no role in the decision,’’ said Chris Murphy, a spokesman at the hospital chain’s corporate headquarters in Boston.
Murphy said Ramirez lost her job because she intentionally changed a doctor’s order, committed an intentional medical error, and failed to enter into a patient’s medical record that she had administered morphine - all of which had been reported to management by another nurse, he said. Another factor in the firing, Murphy said, was that Ramirez previously had been placed on probation for two years by the state Board of Registration in Nursing for diverting patient medication for her personal use.
Ramirez conceded she made a mistake by administering a drug intravenously rather than injecting it, but said the error was not intentional. The drug in question is commonly given intravenously, Ramirez said, and the patient was not harmed. She said the nurse who alerted managers to the mix-up “embellished’’ the story. While acknowledging she had earlier been placed on probation by the nursing board, Ramirez said no patients were harmed by her actions then, either.
Contending her firing was punishment for organizing the union drive that in July resulted in nurses electing to affiliate with the Massachusetts nurses union, Ramirez said she wants to be reinstated and given back pay.
She also said she has long advocated for more staffing and better safety measures at Holy Family.
“I had no trouble telling management when I felt they were being unfair to the nurses or showed a lack of respect,’’ she said. “Right now, my goal is to just settle this matter. I want them to know that I’m not going away until the matter is settled.’’
