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Unionists lobby for health care improvements
May 19, 2004 Joanne Walsh, far left, NYSUT's health professional of the year, gives a union nurses' T-shirt to Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther. With Walsh are union lobbyists from the United Federation of Teachers and Brookhaven FNHP. In his Albany office, Sen. Kemp Hannon, R-Nassau, has the sort of books that are ubiquitous in the Legislative Office Building : "The New York Red Book," "Suggested State Legislation," and "State Expenditure Report." But other spines stand out, too: "The Profit Motive and Patient Care," and "Beyond Crisis, Confronting Health Care in the U.S." Chairing the Senate Health Committee, Sen. Hannon and his counterpart in the Assembly, Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, are key figures to effecting change within the state's health care facilities. Health care professionals from New York State United Teachers lobbying on May 4 made sure to visit both offices in the push for legislation to:
Sen. Hannon acknowledged that overtime and short-staffing realities "chase people away from the profession ... if you could change, people would come back in" to the profession. NYSUT health care advocates were ready with practical suggestions for that change: providing nurses with health insurance upon employment, instead of making them wait the three months that is standard at many hospitals; offering refresher courses for returning nurses; banning mandatory overtime; and training and establishing a float pool of nurses to work when needed, saving the hospital money on overtime and freeing regular nurses to go home. Hannon asked Anne Goldman, chairwoman of NYSUT's Health Care Professionals Council, and her colleagues to put the "brilliant" suggestions in writing. Budget-wise, Hannon was cautious about making promises: "We're trying to get money back in health care (restored from the governor's executive budget)." Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Orange, said the state's proposed "sick tax" on health care facilities to raise money is "not a viable option ... These guys can barely fund their facilities." Gunther, herself a per diem working nurse, said she is in favor of legislation for nurse-patient staff ratios that considers the severity of patients' illnesses. "Everybody has a mother or father who pushed the bell (in the hospital) and no one came," she said. As for mandatory overtime, she said, "I've been there 18 hours and it's really unreasonable." Over-reliance on nurse aides will not appropriately fill the gap. "The patient may not realize they're not telling a nurse their chest hurts," said Christina Jones, Albany Visiting Nurse Association. Assemblywoman Gunther said she supports a loan forgiveness program for nursing students, and funding to educate professionals to become nurse educators in order to cope with faculty shortages. "There was a two-year wait in Orange and Sullivan counties," Gunther said. Assemblyman James Conte, R-Suffolk, said, "We had 500 people on Long Island trying to go to nursing school. There's not enough teachers and not enough programs." "There won't be one bill solving the problems," said Michelle Parker, a school nurse from Greenburgh Civil Service Organization. "Bills have to be grouped with recruitment and retention." That means better working conditions. "What if you have 14 patients? 20?" asked Judy Hatton, a member of Brookhaven Memorial Hospital 's Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals. "There is no limit." "We're going to tell the public about nurse-patient ratios," Goldman, the nursing representative to the United Federation of Teacher, told an aide of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Rensselaer. "We believe if the public knows, they will not tolerate it." The NYSUT group lobbied for a law requiring a registered nurse in every school building, so that a sick child isn't left waiting while a nurse is at another location. "It's a liability," said Donna Miele, school nurse from Greenburgh CSO. — Liza Frenette |
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