NYSUT conference encourages workers to promote the profession

Healthcare professionals need to promote “the three R’s for caregivers: respect, recognition and rewards” by aiming for “straight A’s: advocacy, advocacy, advocacy.” That was the advice of health writer Suzanne Gordon to a room of 200 healthcare professionals at New York State United Teachers’ Professional Issues Forum on Health Care in April. The Albany conference, which has grown bigger each year, is sponsored by the NYSUT Health Care Professionals Council, chaired by New York City nurse Anne Goldman.

“We’re asking nurses to work without filling the tank,” said Gordon, the author of several nursing advocacy books. “There’s not enough time to think or eat on the job and, with work demands, there’s not enough time for sleep afterward.”

The solution is advocacy. “Healthcare workers must engage in assertive public communication,” added Gordon.  “You are fortunate you belong to the union. You have a voice in the workplace and in the political arena. You can’t imagine what it’d look like if unions weren’t there.”

Bans on mandatory overtime, control of workload and whistleblower legislation have gained ground through advocacy. It took California nurses 10 years to get a law mandating safe staffing ratios (1-to-4 by 2008) by fighting against “the huge machine of hospital administration,” said Gordon. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to  “terminate” the legislation, the nurses did not give up. Ultimately, the California Superior Court ruled in their favor.

“You save lives, you prevent suffering and you save money,” Gordon said. “You need to get out there and explain what you do.”

Also at the conference, Joni Ketter, assistant director of the American Federation of Teachers healthcare division, noted the trend for non-nursing school staff to be “trained with a PowerPoint presentation” on how to assess and give glucagon injections to student diabetics.

“AFT is fighting this state by state,” Ketter said. The union sent school nurses to the capitol in Indiana and the bill was defeated, she said. When it comes to treating students who have dangerous health conditions, “We want only nurses to do this,” said Kathleen Donahue, vice president of New York State United Teachers, to spontaneous applause. Donahue urged participants to rally in Albany on May 2, NYSUT’s lobby day for healthcare legislation.

In addition, she told conference attendees to keep an eye on the Kentucky River case now before the National Labor Relations Board. The decision may wind up dictating who among nurses is a supervisor and who is not (see story, page 6). For instance, aschool nurse who has a health aide or is training someone could be considered a supervisor, she said.

“If this works its way into the public sector, it could be really bad,” Ketter said. “This could decimate the labor movement.”

— Liza Frenette