The Nurses - A Novel by Richard Frede Hardcover – January 1, 1985
 
From the jacket flap (minus the preface & character list):

The doctors' solution to the diseases that afflict Back Bay Metropolitan Hospital is the radical surgery of a strike. But the strike can give the City of Boston the excuse it's looking for to shut down the only hospital that serves the poor of the city. Caught in the middle of this power play are the patients the hospital serves and the nurses who must care for them. And as the strike goes forward, the nurses remain on duty - forced to make decisions that risk careers, relationships, and lives.

"The Nurses" is a novel seething with personal and professional crises and a novel replete with meticulous medical detail. But, above all, "The Nurses" is filled with a great humanity; a compellingly woven tapestry depicting a great profession dedicated, no matter what the sacrifice, to caring for others.
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