Sandy Shea

From her unique vantage point as staff for unionized resident physicians, Sandy Shea has closely observed graduate medical education and residency training issues since 1978. Working on a daily basis with house staff at Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Hospital, as well as maintaining regular communication with unionized house staff in teaching hospitals across the country, Ms. Shea has had ample opportunity to monitor the dramatic changes in health care which have so adversely impacted the training of resident physicians and the patients they care for.

Ms. Shea served as staff for the independent House Officers^Ò Association at Boston City Hospital from 1978 1993, negotiating collective bargaining agreements and handling grievances and arbitrations all with the goal of improving house staff working conditions and patient care. During that time, Ms. Shea and the union were also founding members of Health Care For All, Massachusetts^Ò influential health care advocacy group.

In 1993, BCH residents voted to affiliate with the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), the oldest and largest union of house staff in the U.S., and in 1995, Ms. Shea was named CIR Massachusetts Area Director, with jurisdiction over Boston City and Cambridge Hospitals. From 1995 to 1996, she directed the campaign that successfully convinced hospital management to continue to recognize Boston CIR as the union for residents at the newly merged and now private Boston Medical Center.

In 1997, Ms. Shea was part of the CIR legal team that brought the BMC Case before the National Labor Relations Board, successfully overturning a 20-year-old ruling that had excluded interns and residents in private hospitals from NLRB protections and rights when organizing.

Ms. Shea has negotiated over 15 collective bargaining agreements, administered CIR Patient Care Funds, and served as staff for the BMC Minority Recruitment Program, an innovative union-management effort begun in 1981 to recruit more Black and Latino resident physicians so that the hospital can better serve its diverse patient population.

Prior to working with interns and residents, Ms. Shea worked as a journalist both in New York City and Boston, Massachusetts.