How is the Boston nurses strike affecting Brigham & Women's Hospital patients?

As the Boston nurses strike gets underway, patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital may be wondering how the biggest nurses strike in Massachusetts history will affect them.

The hospital, which sees about 50,000 patient visits per year, is still open during the five-day work stoppage. Mass General Brigham has brought in almost 1,300 temporary nurses to cover for the more than 4,000 union nurses who are striking for better pay.

Here's what patients should know about how their care may be impacted by the strike.

Temporary nurses at Brigham & Women's Hospital amid strike

The hospital says "safe patient care is our top priority."

"BWH remains open and operational, and we have robust contingency plans in place, including highly trained agency nurses who will provide safe, excellent care during a work stoppage," the hospital said in a statement. "We're committed to maintaining the highest standards in patient care and safety."

Striking nurses, however, say patients won't be getting the same level of care from the temporary nurses.

"Are they qualified? Are they not qualified? Are they just hiring a body to come in?" union representative and nurse Jen DeVincent said. "We want our patients to be safe. We should be in there, not out here."

Patients facing serious medical issues and their families are also concerned about seeing changes to their care team.

"Patients are here on some of the worst days of their life and nurses are literally treating you through that time," hematology patient Kojo Acheanpong said.

A mother of a baby in the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit told WBZ-TV just before the strike that she's "extremely concerned" about NICU care being performed by replacement nurses.

"We have zero respect for them and I can imagine that most of them are not very good nurses," NICU nurse Kristen Robisham said Wednesday.

And Peter Caikauskas, whose 61-year-old father has been in the ICU for five months after a double lung transplant, said he's "terrified for his dad's care."

"He's fighting for his life every day," he said. "These nurses are amazing in every way, they've literally kept him alive this entire time."

His concern with the replacement nurses coming in is that "they don't know him."

"That's not to say they're bad nurses or anything, even the best nurse there is could come in and doesn't know his case, hasn't been with him for five months ... that can 100% affect his care," Caikauskas said.

Brigham & Women's Hospital appointments during strike

With temporary nursing staff in place, the Brigham says it will remain open for appointments. Patients will be contacted directly if there is a change to their scheduled appointments.

Patients arriving for an appointment can expect more traffic around the hospital because of picketing, so they may want to give themselves extra time for travel. Crowds on Wednesday morning were so large that police had to shut down part of Francis Street in the Longwood medical area.