New conscience protections are disingenuous

A recent letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from AFT President Randi Weingarten spoke against proposed rule changes regarding the ability of the Office for Civil Rights to impose new procedures to enforce existing laws concerning the rights of health professionals to participate in certain medical procedures.

I thank Randi for her advocacy on healthcare issues because this proposed rule is offered under the false pretense that it protects a healthcare worker from having to participate in a procedure based on his or her religious or ethical beliefs.

Although originally founded as a teachers union, the AFT now represents public service workers and healthcare professionals too. In fact, the AFT is the second-largest representative of registered nurses in the country. As such, we embrace our duty to advocate for all healthcare workers and our patients.

When I first heard about the proposed rule, it sounded like a reasonable protection for healthcare workers. But, when I read the rule, I realized it would not only allow the Civil Rights Division to respond to complaints from healthcare workers, it could also interfere with the rights of patients to receive care.

You see, under current law, healthcare workers are already protected from being forced into participating in any procedure they object to, based on religious beliefs or concerns of conscience.

So why the proposed rule change?

Could it be because under the new rule, healthcare providers would have the right to refuse to treat a patient, not based on the procedure, but based on the patient’s income, race, ethnicity, gender, background, political or religious beliefs, sexual identity, or almost anything? The new rule would also extend these rights to healthcare institutions. These new rules are clearly an attempt to institutionalize discrimination based on who the patient is.

As a registered nurse, it’s my right — legally and ethically — to refuse to participate in certain procedures based on my beliefs. I do not need any new rules to guarantee me this right. I also have a moral obligation to provide care to every patient equally, and I have the same moral obligation to refer any patient to a provider who feels differently than I do, and who can provide them the care they seek.

Healthcare professionals, like everyone, have varying ethical beliefs when it comes to certain procedures. Some of us may object to performing or assisting in abortions, or administering vaccinations, or providing certain end-of-life care, or participating in lethal injections. I vigorously defend their right to object, and the rules as they stand now protect their rights as well.

However, there is no place in healthcare for a provider (or facility) to decide whether to participate or provide a procedure based on a person’s religion, politics, sexual orientation, race or legal status. This proposed rule is not only unnecessary in protecting healthcare workers’ right to practice according to their ethical beliefs, it is potentially harmful to the very patients we have dedicated our lives to care for.

This blog has been posted on AFT Voices at:
https://aftvoices.org/new-conscience-protections-are-disingenuous-e502d37f5d36

I am not a captive

I testified today in Hartford.
Seems like I’ve been doing a lot of that recently.
This time it was before the Judiciary Committee in favor of a bill on Captive Audience Meetings.

I told the committee of my experience in 2011 when, along with my fellow nurses at Backus Hospital, we grew tired of not having a voice and thereby not being able to advocate for our patients, and after trying to get management to listen to us and failing, we formed a union.
I told them of the multiple captive audience meetings I survived.
Meetings in which a manager would pull me into a small room, close the door and then stand in front of it, and tell me that my “union” activities were harming my patients and my coworkers and that I should back down from the effort.
I told them that these meetings were so traumatizing that I would debrief with my organizer (thank you Ole) after the meetings, much as I would after caring for a child in the ER who didn’t survive.
I told them how at one point, two managers cornered me in a 10 foot by 10 foot storage room and berated me for my efforts.

One committee member stated that this sounds much like the size of a prison cell (6 ft X 10 ft) and how it must have felt like I was in a cell at the moment.
Another member said she considers herself a strong person who can stand up to anyone and that my story sounded intimidating even to her.
The chair, whom I have known for some time, said he never thought of me as someone who would back down from intimidation.

While I appreciate that statement, the truth is I am quite sensitive.
I told him this, and that it takes a lot to make me overcome my sensitivity, but not having a voice to advocate for my patients and fearing that some of the younger nurses might be vulnerable to intimidation, allowed me to have the courage to stand up and gain a voice.

Workers should not need to overcome management coercion or intimidation to come together and form a union and gain a voice.
My experience has made me stronger, but it was not easy.
I pray that any work I do makes it easy for others.

Members in action (Legislative Breakfasts)

Today was billed as the Working People’s Day of Action, with rallies and actions across our country, in preparation of the oral arguments that will be heard by the U S Supreme Court in the Janus v Afscme case on Monday.
This case will effect all worker’s ability to speak with one voice and advocate in the workplace and the community.

AFT Connecticut recognized the day by holding the first two of several legislative breakfasts, where members had the opportunity to sit with legislators and candidates for office, and share with them personal stories of the dedicated work they do every day, in schools, in hospitals, and in state service.
Over 100 members spoke of specific issues that effect them and the people they serve, and what our members know is the legislator’s role in working for a solution that benefits all, not just the rich.

Over the next several weeks, AFT Connecticut members will continue to meet with legislators at these breakfasts and at an all day legislative conference.
They will also testify in Hartford at public hearings.
This fall they will visit other union households in a labor to labor door knocking program to encourage all union members to get out and vote.
And yes, our members will vote!

There is a saying that I think fits well.

 “This is what democracy looks like.”

Info on AFT Connecticut Legislative Breakfasts and Legislative Conference

#Enough

Enough is the cry coming out of Florida after another school shooting last week.
Another week, another school, another mass murder.
But somehow this feels different.
The reaction feels different.

Maybe it’s because it’s Florida, a state that for several years has eased gun control laws.
Maybe it’s because unlike Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Pulse Nightclub, Fort Hood, and so many more, the survivors are not kindergarten students, not parents, not adults, but 14-18 year olds, still children but articulate enough to express themselves in a moving way.
Maybe it’s different because unlike Columbine, this has continued, and continued, and continued for 18 years.
Maybe it’s the times we live in, with black lives matter, me too, and other movements, people are starting to speak out.
Or maybe this too shall pass.
Maybe nothing will be done.

At the same time we have an indictment charging Russians in exploiting the divisions in our country as a weapon against us.  They want to disrupt elections, but they also want to cultivate what is and always has been, great divisions between Americans.

I find myself torn as to how to react.
At the very time I want to lash out on social media against anyone opposed to common sense gun controls, I feel like I would be playing into the very plan of those who wish to further divide us.

It’s frustrating, and I’m not sure what to do.

I must speak out.
I should speak out.
But I will no longer entertain the social media rants of those who wish to sow division.
I will speak my mind and others are free to disagree, but I will not engage in social media war.
I do not claim to be sure of this decision, and I respect others who may feel I am off base, who may feel they should meet argument with argument.
I do not even claim that I will feel the same way in yet another week, but for now, I say enough.
Enough to the killings.
Enough to the mass shootings.
Enough to the social media divisions.
Enough.

I will express my options and others are free to agree or disagree.
I would be more than happy to meet “off line” to discuss and debate in a civil manner.
But I will not feed the monster that seeks to use social media to divide.
Enough.

Parkland shooting

The school shootings in Florida were very disturbing to me.
I’m sure they were to everyone.
Besides the obvious reasons to be disturbed, Majory Stoneman Douglas High is an AFT school like Sandy Hook.
Unlike in 2012, I now personally know many more teachers, paraprofessionals, and other school personnel, including those at Sandy Hook.
I understand them better and understand that like healthcare workers, educators face daily safety threats to themselves and their students.
And these high school students are articulating what they are going through in a way that kindergarten students cannot.

It’s disturbing.
And it should be.

So many mass shootings since Sandy Hook, in schools and elsewhere.
When will we do something?

The influence of big money in elections is such a problem, and the gun lobby has big money and will spend it.
We’re told its not a “gun problem” it’s a “mental health problem,” yet the same people who claim this also vote to cut funds to treat mental health services.

The investigation will determine “the true problem,” but we already know what that is.
We elect people who fail time and again to address this.
They lack the courage.

There are common sense answers to decrease the chance that the wrong people will have guns and use them like this.
Legislators know this.

We need to force them to act or we need to replace them.
Please make sure you are registered, educated on the issues, and voting.
Make sure those around you do the same.

Enough school children have died.