In 2018, Pope Francis departed from a prepared text to praise this nurse:
“With your permission, I’d like to pay tribute to a nurse who saved my life. She was a religious nurse: an Italian Dominican sister, who was sent to Greece as a professor, highly educated … But as a nurse, then, she arrived in Argentina.
And when I, at the age of twenty, was at the point of dying, she was the one to tell the doctors, even arguing with them, ‘No, this isn’t right, we need to give more.’ And thanks to those things, I survived. I thank her so much! I thank her. And I’d like to say her name here, in your presence: Sister Cornelia Caraglio. A great woman, brave too, to the point of arguing with the doctors. Humble, but sure of what she was doing.”
Our nurses, midwives and healthcare workers; our teachers, Para educators and school support staff; our public service workers, are nothing without the ability to advocate for those we serve, as Pope Francis says so well, “even arguing with them (those in power).”
It is our duty.
It is our right.
It is possible when we stand together in unity.
#unionpower AFT Connecticut AFT - American Federation of Teachers AFT Public Employees Connecticut AFL-CIO
Pope expresses support for year of the Nurse and Midwife
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Saturday, January 18, 2020
A voice at Backus
I am very proud of all my AFT Connecticut sisters and brothers but this week I am especially proud of my home local, Backus Nurses. When their chief delegate was unjustly terminated for standing up for her coworkers and their patients, they would not be silent as management would have wished. They stood together in unity.
Their bracelets say #JusticeForJalene, but what they really say is this:
we will not be silent,
we will not be subservient,
we will not be bullied.
In addition to the support in the hospital, President Sherri Dayton and VP Jessica Harris spent 2 full days in arbitration this week with Jalene and AFT CT staff, arguing the case.
None of this would have been have possible just a few years ago before we formed a union. Back then, we had no recourse.
We just had to take it.
Now, although the outcome of arbitration is never certain, we have our day in court. And, thanks to our members in the hospital, showing their solidarity by wearing their bracelets, we have our voice in the workplace.
That solidarity is what AFT - American Federation of Teachers AFT Nurses & Health Professionals Connecticut AFL-CIO is all about. #UnionProud
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Most trusted
For the 18th year in a row, nurses were selected at the most trusted and ethical professionals, with other healthcare workers close behind. https://news.gallup.com/poll/245597/nurses-again-outpace-professions-honesty-ethics.aspx
18 years in a row!
Why then, do nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals rank understaffing and safety on the job the biggest issues to them?
One would think that if they are so highly respected, we would care for them as they care for us.
One would think that if they are so highly respected, we would listen to their concerns and help them solve them.
One would think that if they are so highly respected, that the American Hospital Association wouldn’t oppose safe staffing and safety on the job legislation and collective bargaining initiatives.
One would think that if they are so highly respected, healthcare corporation management wouldn’t try to deny them a voice (the only voice that speaks for patients) by training managers in anti-worker tactics.
However, we must remember that hospitals are not run by members of the community anymore. They are joined into huge systems controlled by corporate executives, many who never worked at the bedside, who make 6 and even 7 figure salaries and who see healthcare workers as an expense, not an asset.
Unlike the rest of America, hospital CEO’s do NOT hold healthcare workers in high regard.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared 2020 the year of the nurse and midwife.
Let us use this year to translate the respect we have for all healthcare workers, (the volunteers and the professionals), prehospital, in hospital, post hospital and community, into action.
Let us use this year to show them the respect they have earned and to value their voice, the only voice that speaks for patients.
18 years in a row!
Why then, do nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals rank understaffing and safety on the job the biggest issues to them?
One would think that if they are so highly respected, we would care for them as they care for us.
One would think that if they are so highly respected, we would listen to their concerns and help them solve them.
One would think that if they are so highly respected, that the American Hospital Association wouldn’t oppose safe staffing and safety on the job legislation and collective bargaining initiatives.
One would think that if they are so highly respected, healthcare corporation management wouldn’t try to deny them a voice (the only voice that speaks for patients) by training managers in anti-worker tactics.
However, we must remember that hospitals are not run by members of the community anymore. They are joined into huge systems controlled by corporate executives, many who never worked at the bedside, who make 6 and even 7 figure salaries and who see healthcare workers as an expense, not an asset.
Unlike the rest of America, hospital CEO’s do NOT hold healthcare workers in high regard.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared 2020 the year of the nurse and midwife.
Let us use this year to translate the respect we have for all healthcare workers, (the volunteers and the professionals), prehospital, in hospital, post hospital and community, into action.
Let us use this year to show them the respect they have earned and to value their voice, the only voice that speaks for patients.