PEF nurses urged
to advocate for healthier health care system
By SHERRY HALBROOK
The need for nurses to speak with one voice in advocating
for their patients and themselves was the message
delivered to delegates attending the annual nurses’
luncheon held at the PEF convention in Buffalo.
“A lot of nurses are abdicating their responsibility
as advocates for their patients,” Martha Baker told
the delegates. “We must speak up, and we must speak
with one voice if we want to take control of our
profession.”
Baker, an RN, is president of the National Nurses
Alliance and SEIU Local 1991 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in
Miami. She was invited to address the luncheon by the PEF
Nurses Committee after Co-Chairs Debbie Egel and June
Edwards met Baker at a national conference on nursing
issues and heard how SEIU and the Nurses Alliance got a
ban on mandatory overtime for nurses in New Jersey.
“We have to be united if we want to make
change,” Baker said. “But only 16 percent of us
are organized (in unions).”
She said many nurses have left the Miami hospital where
she works in the critical care unit for trauma patients.
Problem began in
1980s
The focus on dollars is hurting patients and driving
nurses away from their bedside, Baker said.
“In the 1980s, nurses began leaving our hospital and
others for less emotionally and physically taxing
jobs,” she said.
Instead of looking for ways to improve conditions and
hold onto its nurses, Mt. Sinai focused on finances and,
on the advice of consultant Ernst & Young,
“tried to cut the number of nurses from 72 to
44.”
Meanwhile, she said, “patients are sicker, but
getting kicked out of the hospitals by their HMOs.”
“Two to three years ago, it took an average of 11
days to fill a nursing vacancy at Mt. Sinai, but now it
takes much longer.”
 LISTENING AND CARING —
PEF nurses June Edwards and Debbie Egel pause to listen
to comments from other nurses at their luncheon held at
the 24th PEF Convention in Buffalo. — Photo by Bill
Sachs.
Nurses shunning hospitals
Baker said the so-called nursing shortage is really
deceptive.
“It’s not a shortage of nurses, but a shortage
of nurses willing to work in the hospitals,” she
said. “The supply of nurses actually exceeds the
demand, but poor working conditions are driving nurses
out of their profession. It is estimated that 500,000
nurses have left the profession entirely.”
As the population ages, more nurses will be needed, Baker
said. “With the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age
in 2010, we are headed for a ‘train wreck’ in
health care.”
Baker said the top priorities to address this growing
crisis are:
• More staff nurses and technicians in hospitals;
• Ending mandatory overtime;
• More pay and benefits for nurses and other health
care workers; and
• better hospital safety.
“Did you know nurses have a higher rate of back
injury than construction workers?” she asked.
Solutions needed
now
Efforts to lure adolescents into nursing schools
won’t solve the immediate crisis, Baker said.
“We can’t wait to fix the shortage. Thank, God
for research that’s documenting what we have known
all along — having more nurses creates better
patient care. The statistical relationship between
staffing and the quality of care is being clearly
established.”
The terrible side of those statistics, she added, is the
annual rate of 44,000 to 49,000 errors in patient care.
“And medical errors are mainly staff-based,”
she said.
“California is the only state with mandatory
staffing levels and they expect it to save $1 billion by
reducing the length of patient stays in hospitals,”
she said.
Australia is also on the right track to solving its
nursing crisis, Baker reported.
“When one Australian state imposed nurse-patient
ratios, 13 percent of nurses returned to their hospital
jobs.”
Baker urged PEF nurses to network as much as possible
with other nurses to help achieve local, state and
national reforms.
“We’ve got to treat the disease and not just
the symptoms,” she said. “It’s our duty to
advocate for a healthier health care system.”
Union striving
to keep service-credit bill alive
Vetoed by the governor in October, a PEF-backed bill
(A.9029-A) that would have allowed employees in the
public retirement system to receive service credit for
periods of child care leave, both prospectively and
retroactively, may be reintroduced in January.
PEF leaders and the bill’s other supporters will
look for ways to modify it to address the governor’s
concerns and give the legislation a better chance of
making it into law.
“The governor gave two main reasons for vetoing this
bill,” said PEF’s Legislative Director Brian
Curran.
“One is the current financial climate, which we hope
will be a temporary problem. The governor said it would
not be fiscally responsible to add pension costs at this
time. That concern will be difficult to overcome until
the economy and the state budget situation improve,”
he said.
The governor also felt the bill would have applied to too
many different public employers and pension funds. It
would also have authorized, but didn’t specifically
define, pension credit for a period of unpaid child care
leave.
Curran said he hopes the bill sponsors will make it
narrower and more specific in hopes of meeting those
objections.
As passed by the Legislature in 2002, the bill would have
amended state Education Law, state Retirement and Social
Security Law and the Administrative Code of the City of
New York.
PEF will encourage the bill’s sponsors to
reintroduce it and keep it alive. — By Deborah A.
Miles
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COMMUNICATOR HOMEPAGE
Inside This
Issue:
Features
PEF’s political action
efforts pay off
Union's top COPE-people take
a bow
Nurses protest at SUNY
Downstate Med.Center
Long view snags threat to
PEF jobs
PEF Scholarships and
financial aid
- January time to apply for student financial aid
- PEF to award 10 Scacalossi Scholarships
- Unions offer $$$ to top students
- Neil Boyle lives on through scholarships
- Tap into a Union Plus
scholarship
Departments
President's Message: Ready
for '03 challenges
You Said It: Member's
letters this month
Member Mobilization:Building
union power
Nurses' Station: Fight for
healthier health care
Health Notes: Choosing your
health plan
Retirees In Action:
Legislative battles ahead
Member In Action: Highlights
page
PEF Membership Benefits
Program & Travel Corp
Union Matters
Trustees Report to the '02
convention
Agency-fee procedure
outlined
Financial Supplement (Audit)
PEF helps spotlight poor
care, understaffing
Members’ 9/11 tribute
on US State Dept. Website
Union striving to keep
service-credit bill alive
Members' vacation credits
safe
Members on military leave health insurance safe
Court: GOER must enforce
order at SIF
PEF rallies to aid injured
member at DOT
Test drive online training
Contract offers DOCS members
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ERI windows already opened
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File your HCSAccount claims
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E- Board makes decisions at
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Black Caucus to host Holiday
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