Death from understaffing

A study of an intensive care unit at a Scottish hospital, reported in the July 15 issue of The Lancet, showed that when there were more nurses per patient, the death rate was lower than expected, and when the workload was heavier than average—that is, fewer nurses per patient—the odds of patients dying increased. The researchers cautioned that it is hard to really know if understaffing necessarily leads to poorer care and increased risk of death but postulate that care may indeed suffer if understaffing leads to less supervision of nurses, insufficient time to perform medical procedures and more errors.

Award-winning publications

AFT publications were big winners in this year's International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) journalism contest. Healthwire won three awards for its publications issued in 1999: first award for general excellence, first award for best use of graphics and honorable mention for best editorial/column for Candice Owley's "Critical Issues" column. Additionally, first awards for general excellence went to American Teacher, On Campus and Reporter (the newsletter for the union's paraprofessionals and school-related personnel). American Teacher also won second place for best use of graphics.

In solidarity

Striking nurses at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., got a boost when AFT president Sandra Feldman and Washington Teachers Union president Barbara Bullock joined the picket lines on Sept. 27 to make a contribution to the nurses' strike fund. Some 1,200 members of the District of Columbia Nurses Association have been out on strike since Sept. 20 over stalled contract talks that involve issues like being forced to work overtime, understaffing, constant shift rotation and being "floated" to work on units for which the nurses are not trained. Feldman, who presented a check for $10,000 from the AFT to the DCNA's strike fund, said "we at the AFT know how important it is to have the tools and conditions to do the best possible jobs for your patients...." Bullock, who is also an AFT vice president, told the crowd of strikers that she called all of her doctors at the Washington Hospital Center and told them she would not return to the hospital until the nurses settled their strike. Both Feldman and Bullock joined the picketers with signs, songs and chants, along with a contingent of AFT staff members who have been walking the picket lines every day in solidarity. "One of the most sustaining factors [during the strike] has been the show of solidarity from other unions—like the AFT," said DCNA officer Gwen Johnson, who accepted the check from Feldman. "They've been out here every day to tell the community about the importance of getting real nurses." DCNA is an affiliate of the United American Nurses/American Nurses Association.

Organizing=Quality for all

The Connecticut Federation of Educational and Professional Employees (CFEPE) has recently beefed up its health care organizing staff, reports CFEPE president George Springer, expanding from one staff member specializing in health care organizing to six. The CFEPE now has a director of health care organizing, its full-time organizer who has been on board for more than a decade, and four staff members who come to the CFEPE from the AFT Northeast organizing project. Health care workers are feeling besieged because of short staffing, mandatory overtime, sicker and sicker patients and more and more expectations, says Springer. "This means they can't deliver the quality of care they'd like to deliver." Springer notes that "our success with organizing people in the health care industry will not only help our members working in health care, it will give us an ability to work inside the industry to improve the quality of health care for all our members."