Wis. nurse questions presidential candidates

Barbara Janusiak, an intensive care nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee, had the opportunity to ask a question of the presidential candidates during the AFL-CIO presidential debate on Aug. 7. Janusiak shares her thoughts here on being a part of the debate.

The AFL-CIO presidential debate in Chicago was scheduled on a day that I had to work, but I knew I’d work it out some way because I really wanted to go. When Stephanie Bloomingdale, the director of public policy for my union, the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP), called and asked if I would be one of the questioners at the debate, I was hesitant. But I agreed and immediately began to feel anxious about doing the job well.

A few days later, I discovered that my name would be one of many that would go into the hat to be selected to ask questions for the event. I felt immediate relief: Now I could just go back to being a spectator and enjoy the debate in a different way.

A week before the event, Stephanie called again.

“Are you sitting down?” she asked.

Of course I wasn’t sitting down, I was at work. I was in the middle of a day that was so busy I’d be lucky to have lunch much less get to the bathroom.

Stephanie announced: “You’ve been picked as the nurse to ask a healthcare question at the AFL-CIO presidential debate, isn’t that great!”

My yes was barely out of my mouth when I began to think, “What am I doing? I would be representing nurses all over the country who have serious questions about our healthcare system. Am I the right one to do that?”

The thought of being the questioner really didn’t hit me until I had to find a way to be off of work on Tuesday, the day of the debate.

It is my philosophy to just deal with whatever life gives you and don’t make a big fuss over things: If it is meant to be, it will be.

In a matter of moments one of my co-workers came to me and said that she would work for me on Tuesday, I was notified that my Monday meeting was cancelled and I got a call from Mary MacDonald, the director of AFT Healthcare, who offered to talk through the question formation with me. Everyone was there to support me. I knew that this had to be the right thing to do.

The night before the debate, the union members who were potential questioners (25 in all) met at Soldier Field. Among the members was a soldier who had returned from Iraq to find his job had moved to Mexico; a disabled worker who had lost a third of his pension and the health insurance for his family; an immigrant who had just become a citizen after a six-year wait; a young man working his way through college; and a worker at a nursing home who had seen many of her fellow workers fired in their attempt to organize. With only 20 minutes for questions it was very possible that everyone would not be able to ask their question and that was okay; just being in the group was exciting.

As number six, I got a chance to ask my question. Sen. Biden spent very little time answering my question and more time criticizing Sen. Edwards for not paying more attention to labor in the past, and he let the crowd know that he was with labor when it counted. It was only in summation that many other candidates expressed a desire to see universal healthcare as their platform. Those responses were what I and other union members wanted to hear.

So in the end, when I think about all of the prep time and anxiety of thinking that I would not be able to deliver the question that I wanted, I will remember that it was such an honor and a privilege to have been part of this debate.

Thanks, AFL-CIO, for this very important forum and for the very special opportunity that it opened for me personally.