More than 300 Nurses Attend Important Nurse Alliance Conference Panel
SEIU Local 121RN played an integral role in a panel discussion at the SEIU Nurse Alliance Conference Oct. 16-17 in Pittsburgh. During the panel, titled “Health & Safety: What Nurses Need to Know to Protect Themselves and Their Patients,” SEIU Local 121RN Liaison to the Nurse Alliance of California Kathy Hughes, RN, and 121RN Health and Safety Director Richard Negri discussed their current work around the campaign to petition Cal/OSHA for a comprehensive Workplace Violence Prevention Standard for Healthcare Workers, as well as their work with 121RN members and other workplace-based campaigns.
To show how timely and important this discussion is, the more than 300 RNs in attendance were asked to stand if they had experienced workplace violence in the last year – and about three-quarters of those in the room stood up.
Panelist Deb Bonn, RN, director of the SEIU Nurse Alliance of Pennsylvania, relayed several recent violent incidents in Pennsylvania healthcare facilities. One major incident took place at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic when a patient returned to the facility after being discharged and shot seven people, killing two and wounding the others. Two of those wounded were SEIU members and will likely never work again.
Hughes detailed her career as a Registered Nurse, which started just as the Blood Borne Pathogen requirements went into effect, and as a member activist when nurse-to-patient ratios were first implemented.
“My nursing practice and safety was positively impacted by the work of those nurse activists before me,” Hughes said. “And I am so pleased by the passage of the Safe Patient Handling legislation in California, and our current work with Cal/OSHA and Workplace Violence Prevention. These two pieces of legislation will greatly improve safety for current and future RNs and other healthcare workers.”
Negri addressed the importance of having Health & Safety staff at the Local Union level, including how to push for contract language outlining safety and well-being.
After being approached by Cal/OSHA during a continuing education class he presented at in 2012 for the Nurse Alliance of California, Negri said Cal/OSHA validated what we already knew: California’s workplace violence legislation was more or less dead in the water because it was written in licensing code rather than labor code, where it would be enforceable. Discussion between Cal/OSHA that day solidified that it was time for SEIU to work toward a comprehensive Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention Standard.
Negri said that while his work entails everything from assisting Union reps, stewards and members with issues pertaining to our rights around health and safety, his No. 1 goal now is to save lives.
“I have come to believe that every local ought to consider having a health and safety staff person,” Negri said. “The yield on that investment, for lack of a better way of putting it, can potentially save lives. So, it is with that my new personal career goal came to be to save as many lives as possible by the time I retire.”
Negri continued by saying that the majority of incidences of workplace violence at work can be prevented.
“We have the tools at our fingertips now to asses these situations in almost the same way we apply assessments when organizing,” Negri said. “If we can predict a hazard, it’s a good bet that the hazard can be prevented.”
The Workplace Violence Prevention campaign was also featured at a table hosted by the SEIU Nurse Alliance of California and SEIU 121RN at the all-day Health Fair on Oct. 16. More than 170 signatures were collected in support of the campaign, forms for nurses to share their stories of workplace violence were handed out, information about the on-going survey was shared, and flash drives loaded with resources and additional information were distributed.
“There wasn’t a nurse who stopped by who didn’t immediately grab for a pen when we told them about the campaign and asked them if they wanted to sign the petition,” Hughes said.
Other panelists:
- SEIU Nurse Alliance of California Executive Director Ingela Dahlgren, RN, welcomed participants and introduced the panelists.
- Bill Borwegen, recently retired SEIU Health and Safety Director. Borwegen showed a video about the SEIU campaigns around Blood Borne Pathogens and Safe Needles, as well as the history of other health and safety victories by SEIU members.
- Mark Catlin, Health & Safety Director for SEIU, highlighted future campaigns, such as an OSHA federal infectious disease standard.
- Former 121RN Health & Safety interns Yasin Khan and Christopher Banks shared their summer experience by showing slides of the work they did for the Workplace Violence Prevention campaign.
- Dr. Toni Lewis, chair of the SEIU Healthcare Division, closed the session with the recognition of our ability, as nurses, to enact positive changes for our patients and ourselves and ended with a moment of silence to recognize those lost or injured at work while reflecting on our future work of making our workplaces safer.