2 minute read
My First Press Conference
Gregory Jasani, MD
In April, I had the honor of speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference. The occasion was the House’s passage of HR 1195: The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Services Workers Act. I had been invited by Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT) to give brief remarks about my experience with the issue and what the passage of this bill meant to me.
HR 1195, if passed, would require every hospital to develop a workplace violence prevention plan in line with current Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards. This issue is personal for me as I am sure it is for many of us; we in health care experience disproportionately high rates of workplace violence. I genuinely believe that HR 1195 would help keep us safer while at work. Being asked to speak and share my experiences at the press conference after the passage of this important legislation in the House of Representatives was an incredible honor. My first involvement with this legislation was a little over a year ago when I wrote an op-ed to support it that was published in the Baltimore Sun (my local paper). Somehow, my op-ed found its way to Congressman Courtney. He invited me down to his office on Capitol Hill and since then I have worked with his office to promote the legislation. As with many things this year, this press conference was virtual. That meant that I had to plan for things like lighting, background, and camera positioning. Fortunately, accounting for these factors is now almost second nature to me thanks to the pandemic and this was not too difficult.
What was more of a challenge, and this would have been the case if the press conference was in person too, was preparing my remarks. The Congressman’s office provided me with two minutes to make my remarks. Two minutes initially seemed like a long time to talk but as I prepared my talking points I soon realized just
how short of a time it really was. Workplace violence is a topic that I feel very strongly about and there was a lot I wanted to say. However, I had to balance my desire to hit multiple points against my allotted time. Crafting remarks that were concise yet hit all of the points I wanted to was more of a challenge that I initially anticipated. Yet, I was ultimately able to write a short speech that I felt conveyed everything I wanted to within my two minutes. The event went incredibly well I think. The Congressman and his staff were effusive in their thanks for my words and participation. When I first began advocating for this bill, I never imagined I’d get to speak at a Capitol Hill press conference for it. I think it goes to show how incredibly powerful and valued our voices as physicians are in these conversations. I hope my experience encourages you to lend your voice to this topic as well: we will need all of them as this bill moves to the Senate.
