UFT Vice President Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT, set the tone for this year’s Professional Issues Conference on Nov. 21 and 22 with her indictment of the American health care system, which she said is “not intended to treat each person optimally” but rather “to ration care.”

“Hospitals are not run by medical professionals. They are run by business people with a business model,” said Goldman to the several hundred nurses in attendance. “We’re thinking people. They’re thinking assembly line.”

UFT President Michael Mulgrew struck a similar note in his remarks at the conference, aptly subtitled Today’s Health Care Challenges, at The Westin in midtown Manhattan.

“We will never back down to those who think it is all about money,” Mulgrew said. “It’s not. It’s about the humanity of those who do the work and the humanity of those we serve.”

In an emotionally wrenching speech at the beginning of the two-day conference, Ciaran Staunton told the group the story of his son Rory, who died two years ago at age 12 after a small cut on his arm that he got at school became septic and emergency room doctors at a hospital misdiagnosed his ailment and sent him home. The tragedy turned Staunton into an outspoken advocate for better protocols for the treatment of sepsis in hospitals and a nurse in every school.

“One week we were deciding what type of pizza we wanted. The next it was what type of coffin,” Staunton said, bringing tears to the eyes of the listening nurses. “No one should have to bury their child.”

Marlene Francillon, a nurse in Lutheran Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit, said she was deeply affected by Staunton’s words. “It was very upsetting,” she said. “We really have not focused on sepsis. People lose their lives because of misdiagnosis.”

The conference also featured a presentation on the Affordable Care Act and the challenges confronting it by Amy Cleary, the assistant director of AFT Health Care. Although 9.5 million more Americans now have health insurance as a result of the act, Cleary warned that it is not a panacea.

“We spend a lot of money on health care in the United States. But what are we getting for it?” she asked.

Cleary also explained in exacting detail how the states with the most uninsured — primarily in the southeast and west — are the same ones that have refused to expand Medicaid for low-income families under the law and are typically right-to-work states.

“Union membership reduces wealth inequality and poverty, which is part of solving the health care crisis,” Cleary said.

The conference attendees also enjoyed a panel on the politics of health care and workshops on everything from social media to safe patient handling to pain management.

In a lively workshop on cultural competency, Dr. Gloria Boseman, a registered nurse and professor at New Jersey City University, discussed different “health care belief systems” and entertained the audience with stories from her own experiences working in diverse communities.

“We don’t spend enough time trying to understand the populations with which we work,” Dr. Boseman said.

Marvene Philips, from Visiting Nurse Service Choice, said she would use what she learned in the workshop in her work with patients. “It was enlightening and well-delivered,” she said. “Something that may seem like nothing to you might be held sacred in another culture.”