Bucking system to deliver excellent patient care

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Nurses show their appreciation for songs about unionism and the right to health care. More photos >>

Miller Photography

During the “Gangs & You” workshop, nurses Keisha Bennett of Lutheran Medical Center and Dawn Tyrrell and Geula Rosenberg of the Visiting Nurse Service of NY have a chance to ask questions of presenter Ron Barrett, who had suggestions for gang prevention.

Advocacy on behalf of patients — in the face of relentless pressure for profits by hospital administrations — was a major theme that threaded throughout the 32nd annual Professional Issues Conference of the Federation of Nurses/UFT held on Nov. 18 and 19.

In her welcoming remarks to the nearly 400 registered and licensed practical nurses gathered at the conference at the Helmsley Hotel, Special Representative Anne Goldman told nurses, “Each one of you should be proud of the work you do and the change you make in people’s lives because you don’t go along with the system.”

Goldman went on to describe the working conditions at the Visiting Nurse Service, where nurses’ movements are tracked on a GPS system and they are allotted only a set time with each patient. But the GPS doesn’t know when someone has just dealt with the death of a loved one and needs more time, she pointed out.

“You have to have the courage to have a conversation with the patient and stand up to the system,” she said.

“But here’s the good news,” Goldman added. “You have the support of your union” in making the right choices and delivering excellent patient care each and every day.”

UFT President Michael Mulgrew discussed the hostile climate that workers and unions find themselves in everywhere today. “Companies making a huge profit still want givebacks and want to squeeze more productivity out of their workers,” he said.

He praised the nurses for what he called their fearless stand during contract negotiations and said that everyone must work together to resist the accountability experts “who don’t understand what nurses actually do but want to dictate how you do it.”

The nurses made their way from large group and panel discussions to smaller workshops throughout the two days. The workshops covered such relevant topics as compassion fatigue, nurses and the law, infectious diseases, critical care skills for medical-surgical nurses, best practices for school-based clinics and what nurses must know about the legal aspects of social media.

In a panel discussion on the politics of health care issues, UFT Director for Legislation and Political Action Paul Egan, along with John Green of New York State United Teachers’ Legislative Department and Mary MacDonald, the director of American Federation of Teachers Healthcare, gave examples of how intimately people’s lives and working conditions are tied to politics.

Egan made the point that politics affects everyone, whether they want it to or not. He urged the nurses to contribute to the UFT Committee On Political Education (COPE) and volunteer in the union’s political action activities to make sure their voices are heard.

MacDonald gave an overview of states seeking to strip workers of the right to collective bargaining and putting up obstacles to make it harder for people to vote.

“I know you’re busy with your patients and busy with your lives, but do not walk away from the upcoming election,” she urged.

Nurse Jihad Hamad, of Lutheran Medical Center, said the conference themes resonated with her work experience.

“With more cuts in the budget...it hurts the hospital and the patient at the bedside,” she said. Nurses and other hospital workers, she went on, “are working hard, day after day, long hours with no breaks. We also pay the price.”

Michelle Campbell-Thomas, a school nurse who works at multiple sites, noted that there are fewer nurses in city public schools than there used to be. One school that she knew went from six to four nurses. That doesn’t mean there is less work, she said, “just fewer hours in the day” to get everything done.

Dana Mack-Laurient, a registered nurse and Health-Plus case manager at Lutheran Medical Center, echoed that concern. “We’re very short-staffed,” she said.