Why medical residents in Boston are unionizing

Also: Horseshoe crab blood, vaccines and a profitable gray area [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  June 13, 2023 Hi CommonHealth reader, The national movement to unionize medical residents notched a major victory last week: the residents and fellows at Mass General Brigham, the largest hospital system in Massachusetts, voted to join the [Committee of Interns and Residents]( an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. This is a big get for the [rapidly growing]( residents' union. With about 2,500 residents and fellows, Mass General Brigham has one of the biggest and most prestigious training programs in the country. Residents are doctors who have completed medical school and interact with patients regularly, but they’re still training under more experienced physicians and can’t yet practice independently. "We are students, but we are also workers," Dr. Lee Richman, a first-year pathology resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told me. "And as we get treated more like workers, we need certain protections in place to ensure we have safe working conditions, so we can train to be the best doctors possible and provide the best possible patient care." Mass General Brigham leaders recently committed to raising pay for residents and fellows. Beginning next month, residents will earn an average of [over $82,000]( per year in their first three years of training, plus a $10,000 annual stipend. But their schedules can be grueling, sometimes twice as long as the typical American worker’s 40-hour week. And in Boston, the trainees are also grappling with the high cost of living, including rent and child care expenses. That’s why residents leading the call for unionization say they need better pay, benefits and working conditions. They say a union will give them a seat at the table to advocate for themselves and for improving patient care. And they’re drawing inspiration from unionized residents at medical training programs around the country, including Montefiore, Stanford and Penn. "We have so many examples of what unionized programs have been able to achieve," said Dr. Sarah Brown, a first-year internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. "We're seeing residents and fellows be able to advocate for themselves and gain benefits and salary and patient care initiatives that we would have never had the power to win before unionization started to become more common." Mass General Brigham leaders have argued against unionization. They said it would cause antagonism. After trainees voted in favor of unionizing, they said they were disappointed with the decision but will work to provide "world-class" medical education within the parameters of collective bargaining. It could be many months — up to a year — before Mass General Brigham and its residents finalize their first contract. 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