More than 3,000 delegates to the AFT's 76th convention in Philadelphia this summer had a lot to celebrate this Fourth of July: A report that the union has organized nearly 100,000 new members since the last convention, a visit from Vice President Al Gore, whom the delegates endorsed for president, and resolutions committing the union to its most ambitious organizing effort and to quality health care, as well as quality education and government services.

To highlight multi-divisional efforts for promoting quality in the workplace, an AFT video outlining what quality is and why the union is concerned was showcased at the convention. For the Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, "when it comes to patient care, quality can be a matter of life and death," the video noted.

The first resolution to be taken up by the convention during the July 4 session committed the million-member union to "the use of quality as an important standard in purchasing health benefits."

Resolution 16--"Protecting Patients and Promoting Quality Health Services," introduced to convention delegates following the video--points out that, while some preventable medical errors result in nearly 100,000 patient deaths each year, consumers have no way of knowing which hospitals in their community have recurrent or serious quality problems. The resolution further points out that our employers and our union, "as purchasers of health care insurance, are in a position to exert substantial influence in support of institutions that attempt to maintain high standards of patient care."

The resolution recommends that the FNHP develop tools to assist those who bargain health benefits to ensure that their members will be sent to health care facilities that maintain high standards of quality and that FNHP leaders work with health care management at their institutions to establish error-reduction programs in blame-free environments.

If as many people who are dying as a result of preventable medical errors died as a result of plane crashes, a "national emergency" would be called, said FNHP program and policy council chair Candice Owley who spoke in favor of the resolution. Owley said that the "culture in our system of keeping secrets about errors that are made" must be changed and in its place a "reporting mechanism whereby we can come forward with errors and create and correct our system of care."

Delegates followed the adoption of the FNHP quality resolution with affirmative votes on resolutions for "Quality Government Services" (from the AFT's Federation of Public Employees); "The Role of Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel in Preventing School Violence and Maintaining Safe and Orderly Schools" (from the AFT's Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel division); and "Teacher Education and Teacher Quality" (from the union's K-16 teacher division).

Resolutions on nurse staffing

Following Vice President Gore's address to the AFT convention, delegates concluded the July 5 general session by passing several resolutions on important health care and nursing issues. Resolution 17--"The Nursing Shortage"--brought passionate appeals from many FNHP delegates. Carol Flynn, president of the Danbury Hospital Professional Nurses Association, asked the teacher delegates in the hall to consider what it would be like to have their principal march 24 additional students into their classroom in the morning because another teacher was sick and no substitute would be hired. That would not happen in schools, Flynn said, but it takes place in hospitals all the time, and patient care suffers.

The resolution notes that many nurses are leaving the profession because of unsafe staffing and dangerous working conditions, and several parts of the country are experiencing nursing shortages. The resolution calls on the FNHP/AFT to "recognize the important role registered nurses play in providing quality care to patients" and to work with its locals and other health care unions to attract qualified individuals to the nursing profession. In addition, it urges expanded efforts to organize RNs. As Renae Reese of the University Health Professionals in Connecticut put it, nurses need a stronger voice because their voice "is the voice of the patient, because patients can never be organized."

The resolution was also amended in committee to incorporate another resolution on safe staffing research. Flynn said such research is vital if patients are to move beyond looking simply at cost when they purchase health coverage. If you have no idea what the quality of care is like, she noted, "you don't know how you're going to come out" of a hospital or other health care facility. The resolution calls on hospitals and other facilities to "gather data on patient census, staffing levels and outcomes ... and to disclose those numbers to the public." In addition, it says more research is needed to determine the relationship between staffing levels and patient outcomes, and to determine the effect of short staffing on nurses and other health care professionals.

Resolution 20, "Restoration of Appropriate Reimbursement Rates for Hospitals," was also adopted by delegates. The resolution calls for better funding to hospitals that provide care to Medicare and Medicaid patients, as well as the Medicare funding that goes to teaching hospitals.

Resolution 14--"Public Health Care Institutions"--calls for FNHP/AFT support for "adequate funding and other resources for quality public health care institutions."

Finally, Resolution 63, "Reducing Sharps and Needlestick Injuries," passed by delegates on the last day of the convention, says that the FNHP/AFT will "support the universal introduction of safer devices in all health care settings," as well as federal legislation that will mandate the use of safer devices in all health care institutions and the involvement of workers in the evaluation and selection of those devices.