The greatest holiday gift we could give our “healthcare heroes” this year is a concerted effort to improve working conditions. Our nurses and other healthcare professionals are worn out, and that is bad for them, and for patients. AFT Nurses & Health Professionals has completed a staffing shortage task force report, with the input of experts in the field and thousands of experts at the bedside, our dedicated members. AFT Connecticut will hold a press conference on January 9 to present this report which will guide our efforts to improve conditions. I hope you can join us. Confirmed speakers so far include AFT - American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and State Senator M Saud Anwar deputy president and co-chair of the Committee on Public Health.
The report and links to the press conference can be found at http://aftct.org/23_Safe_Pt_Care_PC
Our report gives us a roadmap of proven strategies, including:
* Improving recruitment (and diversity in the workforce), with strategies like high school career and techinical education programs, apprenticeships and nurses bridge programs;
* Expanding targeted financial aid and loan repayment programs, including the National Health Service Corps and the Nurse Faculty Loan Program;
* Enacting federal and state laws mandating safe staffing ratios for the whole care team, putting safe staffing requirements into governmental regulations, and negotiating safe staffing levels into collective bargaining agreements;
* Banning mandatory overtime through a wide-ranging approach: federal and state legislation, regulation and collective bargaining agreements;
* Pushing Congress to pass the federal Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, and working with legislatures on greater safety protections;
* Pushing for pandemic protections in federal law, such as an Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services emergency preparedness rule;
* Advocating for funding and programs to support health professionals' mental health;
* Working at the federal and state levels to increase oversight of mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry, including the impact on patient care;
* Making shared governance part of the collective bargaining agreement -- like the partnership between Kaiser Permanente and our Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals and other unions; &
* Last but far from least, championing the right for healthcare workers to form unions, and fighting employer union-busting tactics.
Connecticut AFL-CIO CT Senate Democrats #DoBetter #healthcareheroes
