100% of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute - Foxborough Nurses Sign Letter to Trustee Chair Urging DFCI to Address Pay Disparity with Mass General Brigham

Nurses cite "unacceptable" gap with MGB nurses in same building at Patriot Place in Foxborough amid contentious Dana-Farber/MGB split

FOXBOROUGH, Mass., Oct. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The registered nurses of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – Foxborough, who voted to join the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) in December 2024, have sent a letter to Dana-Farber Board of Trustees Chair Josh Bekenstein calling attention to a wide pay disparity between Foxborough DFCI nurses and their counterparts who work for Mass General Brigham (MGB) in the same building at Patriot Place.

During negotiations for a first MNA contract, Dana-Farber management is currently offering Foxborough nurses' 20 percent less pay than MGB/Brigham and Women's Hospital nurses working in the very same building in Foxborough, as well as nurses in other MGB satellite facilities.

The letter comes as the combative breakup between MGB and Dana-Farber over cancer services has heightened attention on the future of oncology care in Massachusetts. DFCI and MGB will be battling to recruit oncology nurses for their respective expansion projects, which include new outpatient facilities across Eastern Massachusetts.

"Our patients come to us for the highest quality cancer care," the DFCI Foxborough nurses wrote in the letter to Bekenstein. "The work we do is no less complex, no less demanding, and no less critical to health outcomes than that provided in Boston. Paying Foxborough nurses significantly less not only devalues our professionalism but threatens Dana-Farber's ability to recruit and retain skilled oncology nurses at a time when demand for our expertise is greater than ever."

Why Foxborough Nurses Deserve Pay Equity

Foxborough nurses provide highly complex oncology and hematology care, including:

• The largest enrollment in treatment trials of any Dana-Farber satellite.
• Rotating into the lab – duties Boston nurses do not perform.
• Cross-training to cover Oncology Nurse Navigator and charge roles.
• Managing multiple complex regimens in a single shift (e.g., R-CHOP, INFED, and FOLFIRINOX back-to-back).
• Handling a broader range of diagnoses than specialized Boston nurses, including solid and liquid cancers.
• Conducting detailed chemotherapy education ("chemo teaches") for every drug administered.

In addition, Foxborough nurses face higher nurse-to-patient ratios than at the Boston campus, yet remain subject to the same policies, safety standards, education requirements, and oncology certifications as their Boston colleagues. The nurses noted that DFCI will be attempting to recruit hundreds of oncology nurses to its planned cancer hospital with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and will need to address the lower pay DFCI is offering nurses outside its main campus in Longwood.

"Dana-Farber publicly advertises that patients receive the same high standard of care at regional campuses as in Boston," DFCI Foxborough nurses told management across the bargaining table in September. "But when it comes to pay and recognition, we are told we are 'different.' True equity, inclusion, and belonging cannot exist without equitable treatment."

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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 26,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association