More funding on horizon for prison health care workers
Geographic differential aids in recruitment and safety
By DEBORAH A. MILES
Health care workers may finally see some light at the end of the tunnel in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties, where low pay was one of the leading factors in short staffing.
The state Division of Budget has approved an increase in the geographic differentials and increased minimum salaries for nurses in all state agencies within those counties. The pay increase took effect in March and April.
“This is a significant victory for all PEF members in the mid-Hudson area as the state is beginning to recognize the current salaries for many PEF titles are not competitive with private industry,” said PEF President Roger Benson.
The uncompetitive salaries have made it harder to recruit and retain employees in health care and other professional titles, exacerbating the problems of short-staffing and mandatory overtime.
Benson said the pay boosts follow a significant grassroots PEF mobilization effort.
“Our work is not done, but a significant success has been achieved,” he said.
“This is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Tom Donahue, PEF chair of the state Department of Correctional Services (DOCS).
“The state Civil Service Department recommends what areas will receive the geographic differential, but it is the state Executive Department that approves them, as in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties. The union would like to see all nurses get a raise, and we will continue to fight for that,” Donahue said.
Reducing health risks
For nurses working at DOCS, the increase in pay will boost recruitment, and having more staff in the prisons will reduce the safety risks many nurses face.
DOCS provides health care to approximately 65,000 inmates in the state prison system. The state Department of Health consults with DOCS on HIV, hepatitis and other issues, but is not required to do so.
DOCS houses the greatest number of HIV-positive people in the country, according to testimony given by PEF Division 386 Council Leader Linda Spyker-Oles at a public hearing on “Health Care in New York Prisons” last fall.
More staff, fewer errors
Spyker-Oles, a physician’s assistant at Ulster Correctional Facility, testified that with the current short staffing, a DOCS nurse may have to deliver a variety of medications to as many as 150 inmates on a shift.
“I spoke to the nurse administrator at Sullivan Correctional Facility who explained that a nurse on the day shift pours and administers approximately 90 meds, and the evening shift nurse is responsible for approximately 140 meds,” she said. “If this same nurse is mandated to work overtime, which happens routinely, this one nurse can be required to deliver more than 230 medications in a 16-hour workday.”
Spyker-Oles said blood exposures can happen while implanting patients for their TB tests and medical staff have encountered blood exposures when breaking up fights.
DOCS doesn’t know how many HIV-positive inmates are in the system, because it cannot legally mandate testing. However, through a blind study, it has estimated that approximately 5,000 inmates have HIV, and about 3,000 have volunteered for treatment.
“The health and safety of our members will improve with a higher level of staffing in the prisons,” Donahue said. “The geographic differential will be the incentive for nurses to accept positions in the system.”
For a detailed listing of the PEF titles who received the geographic differential, visit the PEF Web site at
www.pef.org/memos.htm.
Communicator Home June
04
Inside This Issue
Features
Contract Update: State stalls...
Take
agencies out of the shadows
Law could reduce contracting-out
Keep pressure to save Fulton CF
Heroes plant feet in NH
Departments
President's Message
Member's Mailbag
Nurses' Station
Retirees In Action
Members' Highlights
Back Cover Ad
PEF Member Benefits & Travel
Union Matters
Vote: PEF’s privatization buster
Senate demands
offset of...
Stopping out-of-title work in
its...
Vote: privatization buster
for ’04
Step in the right direction at SED
Fed. law changes bad for union
Nurses' fast response saves life
$ for prison health care workers
Law
gives benefit to parole...
PI
scientists’ write to the top
Questions on this site?
Email the
comwebmaster
Register here on the PEF
Member Network.
Click
Here email notice when next issue
is online
Site Map
What's New
Search