Nurses union to file ballot question to limit number of patients

Massachusetts’ largest nurses union will ask voters to do what the State Legislature has refused to do: establish statewide limits on the number of hospital patients assigned to each nurse. The Massachusetts Nurses Association launched a Facebook campaign earlier this week and an Internet advertising campaign in September to build support for a proposed November 2014 ballot question that would cap nurses’ workloads in acute care hospitals. Supporters must gather 70,000 signatures from registered voters by this November.