the
monitor
June, 2008
1199 SEIU Professional & Technical Newsletter
Social Workers Across the Union Embark On Visibility Campaign In February, the Social Work Committee kicked off its Social Work Visibility Campaign in a union-wide event attended by over 50 social workers. In celebration of National Social Work Month, the Social Work Visibility campaign continued through March. Members in nine 1199SEIU institutions met to discuss issues of importance to social workers, and engaged both patients and co-workers in discussions about the various roles social workers play in the hospitals through visibility tables in the lobbies of their facilities. The Social Work Visibility campaign culminated a two-year partnership with NASW-NYC and was designed by the 1199SEIU Social Work Committee to bring attention to some of the conditions under which social workers work in healthcare settings and to the vital role social workers play as part of the inter-disciplinary healthcare team across the healthcare continuum. One theme of the Social Work Visibility campaign revolved
around social workers demonstrating leadership inside our institutions through the many roles they play everyday in the lives of their patients and the patients’ families. The second theme was one of offering hope (i.e. health and healing, outreach and opportunity, planning and placement; and evaluation and education). The campaign used posters and buttons on these themes to educate their coworkers and patients. The Social Work Committee also wrote and designed a brochure, translated into Spanish, Creole, and Chinese, that was distributed to patients, families, and community residents using the hospitals. The campaign closed with the 2nd Annual Social Work Seminar held on March 29. The topic of the seminar was, “The Case Management Dilemma and the Changes in the Provision of Mental Health Services”. The seminar was attended by close to 100 social workers who were able to learn more about the case management dilemma Story continues p.2
In this issue: • Social Workers Across the Union Embark On Visibility Campaign
• Dietitians Pave the Way Towards the Future
• Physician Assistants Make Significant Gains
• Demand for Continuing Education Explodes
• Lab Professionals Defend Their Licensure; Campaign to Educate Public
• 1199SEIU Surgical Technician Committee Off and Running • 2008 - 2009 Academic Calender
The Monitor is available online. Go to www.1199seiu.org and click on “professional workers.”
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Social Workers Across the Union Embark On Visibility Campaign Continued from p.1 from the perspective of both the social worker and RN case manager. A follow-up meeting is being planned to continue the discussions about how social workers and RN case managers can work more cooperatively together in the interest of quality patient care. A mental health expert also gave the participants needed insight about the changes in the mental health field as well as new ways to think about the ways they provide mental health services in a different and more efficient way. The highlight of the seminar was a panel with social workers from different settings talking about their various field experiences. This led to an open forum that allowed those present to engage in meaningful dialogue about possible solutions.
Social Workers at New York Presbyterian Hospital
A special luncheon in honor of social workers addressed the possible dilemmas with the current NYS licensing laws, but also the push on the federal level for the government to reinvest nationally in the social work workforce. Participants left the seminar energized and ready to work around issues of case management, mental health, licensing, and social work workforce re-investment. To bring this very exciting Social Work Visibility campaign to your health care institution, please contact your Organizer. You can also call or e-mail Cynthia Wolff, 1199 SEIU Professional & Technical Specialist at (212) 261-2368 or cynthiaw@1199.org.
SOCIAL WORKERS demonstrate
L.E.A.D.E.R.S.H.I.P. L
E
R
S
iaison to the community
esource Developer for Community Referrals
valuation & Education
afe, Appropriate & Timely Interventions
A
D
H
I
ssesment & Advocacy
ealing, Hope & Health
www.1199seiu.org
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ischarge & Continuing Care Planning
nterdisciplinary Team Members
E
motional Support & Empathy
P
atient & Family Oriented
Copies of the posters, buttons, and patient giveaways are available through the Professional & Technical Department. You can also get involved with ongoing professional issues confronting social workers by joining the Social Work Committee. If interested, contact Cynthia Wolff. Show your professional pride and get involved in this exhilarating campaign.
SOCIAL WORKERS INVISIBLE NO MORE!
1199SEIU Physician Assistants Make Significant Gains Physician Assistants at Lutheran Medical Center recently won a big victory as they were able to reopen their contract. As a result of their negotiations, the starting salary of Physician Assistants at the facility is now over $75,000 per year. It goes up with experience so that a Physician Assistant with more than ten years of experience earns over $101,500. The Lutheran Physician Assistants were also able to negotiate an overnight shift differential of $1200 per quarter for every ten shifts worked, up to a maximum of 30 shifts, for an additional total shift compensation of $3600 per quarter, or at a maximum, an additional $14,400 per year. The Lutheran PAs were only able to accomplish these incredible wage adjustments based on their unity and the hospital’s inability to fill both vacancies and the over-night shifts. Newly organized PA’s at Wyckoff Heights Hospital also made gains in their first contract. As of June 2008, entry level physician assistants will earn $75,000 per year with the ability to receive additional compensation on average of each 3-5 years of experience through 20-plus years of service.
Physician Assistants at Lutheran Medical Center pleased after wage reopener
New Physician Assistant hires in both hospitals will also receive compensation based on prior Physician Assistant experience in other healthcare institutions. Physician Assistants in other unionized hospitals are now starting to organize themselves to replicate the accomplishments of their colleagues at Lutheran and Wyckoff Heights. Physician Assistants and other allied medical professionals in other nearby hospitals have shown interest in joining 1199SEIU. In addition to trying to raise industry wage standards consistently across the Union, a committee of Physician Assistants is working on a contract survey to bring some continuity and consistency across the profession on a number of other workplace issues like shift differentials and additional experience steps; overtime; and access to paid CME days and supplemental funding. If you are interested in working on the Physician Assistant Contract Survey Committee or in becoming a member of the Physician Assistant Council, please contact Cynthia Wolff, 1199 SEIU Professional & Technical Specialist at (212) 261-2368 or at cynthiaw@1199.org 3
1199 Lab Workers Defend Their Licensure; Campaign to Educate Public 2008 has been a busy time for 1199 laboratory professionals. From defending their licensure to fighting for more just wages, they have been busy promoting the profession they love. Threat to Licensure fought back Early this year a legislative threat to lab licensure appeared in the form of a proposal to the governor’s budget bill written by the New York Department of Health (DOH). The DOH proposal would have allowed unlicensed personnel to receive certificates to work in so-called specialties, in effect allowing unlicensed people to work whenever a lab manager claimed they were short. The 1199SEIU Lab Committee mobilized their colleagues in and out of the Union in a large letter writing and petition campaign, along with intense lobbying from 1199, to defeat the proposal. The Union was successful! During this period 1199’s Professional & Technical Dept. met with hospital representatives to work out a better legislative approach to address some of the problems in the licensure bill, and to deal with the shortages in the profession. This language allows different pathways for certain specialties (such as cytogenetics, stem cell processing, and others), extends the grandfathering, and includes language for histology techs. This is now working its way through the state legislature. This legislation, under A-10945 in the Assembly and S-8117 in the Senate, can be obtained by going to: http:// assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?by=n&qs=A10945. 4
Educating the Public Meanwhile, 1199 lab workers all over New York have been forcefully articulating to hospitals that the shortage of laboratory personnel will only get worse unless there is a significant increase in the wage scale. At the same time, the 1199SEIU Laboratory Committee, which has over 30 institutions represented, has been engaged in a campaign to educate the public and the broader medical community to bring a greater awareness on the critical role the lab profession plays. They have set up tables in the hospitals, promoting their profession with buttons, brochures, posters, etc. They’ve spoken at youth fairs and community associations. It is absolutely critical to attract younger people to this aging field. This promotional effort is one part of that. Increasing the wages is the other. 30-year lab veteran Vivian Stuart from Franklin Hospital makes the point that because laboratory practitioners’ vital work is done behind the scenes, “we have a duty to bring awareness to our profession as being essential members of the hospital healthcare team. During 2008 National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, my colleagues educated the public and other healthcare personnel through educational displays, 1199SEIU ‘Value Laboratory Professionals’ campaign handouts, brochures, posters, etc. Many questions were asked and answered. It was an enjoyable time for all.” 1199 celebrated National Laboratory Week by putting on a continuing education seminar, which was attended by over 145 laboratory practitioners.
“...we have a duty to bring awareness to our profession as being essential members of the hospital healthcare team.” -Vivian Stuart, Medical Technologist, Northshore—LIJ Franklin Hospital (below)
The topics included the laboratory personnel crisis and its implications, a laboratory diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies, air quality concerns for clinical laboratory personnel, and improving communication between the laboratory and the clinician. The audience then heard directly from representatives from the New York Department of Health and the New York State Education Department on a variety of regulatory issues. To get more information on the ongoing campaign to attain respect and a just wage for laboratory professionals, please contact Debora Hunte, 1199 Professional & Technical Specialist, at 212-857-4398, debora.hunte@1199.org. 5
1199SEIU Dietitians Pave the Way Towards the Future In typical 1199SEIU fashion of anticipating and preparing for pending changes in the healthcare industry, the union’s Dietitians Education Committee planned their spring continuing education seminar to deal with a shift in the way Dietitians will be documenting their nutritional care plans in the future. The Dietitians Education Committee is comprised of both active and retired dietitians as well as a Lehman College professor. The days of writing the old SOAP (subjective, objective assessment and plan) note will soon be gone. The new documentation model standardizes the language for nutrition assessment, and intervention under the title of the Nutrition Care Process and elevates the profession into a more evidenced-based practice. This new Nutrition Care Process model was adopted by the American Dietetic Association in 2003 and is slowly making its way into our institutions. It is modeled after the nursing Jacobi Hospital Dietitians, from left, Mohammad Giashuddin, RD, Lynda Tyson, Clinical Dietitian, and Melanie Castillo, RD, CNSD
care plan model developed by the American Nursing Diagnosis Association. The purpose of this new model of nutrition documentation is to standardize descriptions of nutritional assessments, interventions, and outcomes in a way that can be measured and understood by other dietitians as well as other medical professionals on the inter-disciplinary care teams. The overall goal of creating a nutrition diagnosis and care plan is to provide needed information for ongoing nutrition-based research and to prove that nutrition therapy improves health and saves money and lives, facts which will become increasingly more important to our health care institutions as they all compete for the shrinking health care dollar. Another goal of the shift to the new nutrition care model is to be able to empirically prove that nutrition interventions are safe and effective in alleviating a variety of nutritional problems related to different medical diagnoses. This would pave the way for RD services to someday be reimbursable through thirdparty insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid and Medicare. For the institutions, there is also the added benefit of proving that this new nutrition care model will be cost-effective, thereby saving the hospitals needed revenue to provide ongoing services to the communities they service. Simply stated, the new nutrition care model consists of several steps including nutrition assessment, nutrition diagnosis, nutrition intervention, and nutrition monitoring and evaluation, and allows all dietitians to speak the same language. The nutrition diagnosis component comprises
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what has become known as a PESS statement – a nutrition problem, etiology, signs, and symptoms. By standardizing the language, the focus becomes more clinically-based on empirical facts rather than subjective and descriptive anecdotes. It allows the dietitian to develop a plan that alleviates the observable symptoms and prioritize the needed nutritional interventions. On March 9th, in celebration of National Nutrition Month, over 143 dietitians and dietetic students/ interns gave up their Sunday off and crammed into the 1199SEIU auditorium to hear Dr. Beatriz Dykes, a consultant from Dykes and Associates, Inc. lecture about the new nutrition care process model. Dr. Dykes specializes in Nutrition Education, Food Systems, and Dietetics Management and had the participants riveted to their chairs with her presentation. Dr. Dykes is also an Adjunct Professor at both Lehman and Hunter Colleges in their respective Nutrition Programs. Time was allotted in the afternoon session to practice learning the new way of nutritional thinking and documenting with several important questions raised by the audience. A luncheon sponsored by 1199SEIU in honor of the dietitians heard a presentation on Obesity and Body Composition by Dr. Khursheed Navder, Associate Professor and Didactic Program Director from the Nutrition and Food Science in Urban Public Health Program at Hunter College. Dr. Navder’s address was interactive and very informative. Many participants were intrigued by the evidence presented about how body composition and early cellular structure for obesity can be pre-determined by, among other factors, the prenatal environment . For more information on the Nutrition Care Process, please refer either to the American Dietetic Association’s website, (www.eatright.org), or see the January 2007 article in Today’s Dietitian, (www.todaysdietitian.com/ newarchives/jan2007pg46.shtml) If interested in joining the Dietitians Education Committee please call or e-mail Cynthia Wolff, Professional & Technical Specialist at (212) 261-2368 or Cynthiaw@1199.org
1199SEIU Surgical Technician Committee Off and Running The 1199SEIU Surgical Technician Committee has rejuvenated itself. A continuing education seminar specifically for surgical techs is being planned for next year. Committee members are also looking at national certification issues and tracking differing wage rates across the NYC metropolitan area. As this field grows ever more complex, there have been opportunities for 1199SEIU to reopen the wage rates for surgical technicians at a number of hospitals. Most recently, at St. Vincent’s in Manhattan, certified techs will now start at $23.63 per hour, and see experience increases at 3, 5 and 10 years. The 10-year rate is now $26.57 an hour. Next January, the starting rate will rise to $25.55 per hour. Those with 10 years experience will start at $28.73 an hour. Gains were also made for non-certified techs. To get involved or learn more, contact Debora Hunte, 212-857-4398, debora.hunte.@1199.org. 7
1199SEIU
League Training & Upgrading Fund Institute For Continuing Education
ACADEMIC CALENDER FALL 2008 THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 7:45 AM - 3:15 PM Advances in Mechanical Ventilation: “Empowering Human Effort” Respiratory Therapists Location: Cherkasky/Davis Confernce Center, 330 W. 42nd St., Penthouse Onsite, Videocast, Webcast
SATURDAY, JULY 19, 7:45 AM - 3:15 PM Cancer Symposium Interdisciplinary** Location: Cherkasky/Davis Confernce Center, 330 W. 42nd St., Penthouse Onsite, Videocast, Webcast
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 Heart Disease in Women Interdisciplinary** Location: TBD Onsite, Videocast, Webcast
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2 Traumatic Brain Injury Interdisciplinary** Location: TBD Onsite, Videocast, Webcast
WINTER 2009 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6 Chronic Pain Management Onsite, Videocast, Webcast Interdisciplinary** Onsite, Videocast, Webcast
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8 Renal Disease Interdisciplinary** Location: TBD Onsite, Videocast, Webcast
** Interdiscplinary seminars are usually accredited for Pharmacists, Respiratory Therapists, Dietitians, Radiologic Techs, Laboratory Techs, Social Workers, Physician Assistants, and Nurses. Please call for specific professions.
Demand for Continuing Education Explodes It has been a very exciting and productive 2007-2008 academic year for continuing professional education in 1199. The Institute for Continuing Education, working with the various title-specific rank-and-file Education Committees led by 1199SEIU Professional & Technical Department, put on extremely interesting and thought-provoking seminars that were on the cutting edge and germane to the daily care of patients. There were also a number of very successful prep courses given for both Respiratory Therapists, and Radiologic Technolgists seeking either general registries or specialty certifications Both the number of multi-disciplinary and title specific seminars increased, and the number of participants has grown. The use of the Internet through the webcasting of many of the multi-disciplinary seminars also increased. More professional and technical workers became re-connected with the Union through education and joined the various title-specific Education Committees. It is through these title-specific Education Committees that seminar topics are identified and planned. Multi-disciplinary topics currently being developed include: Heart Disease in Women; Chronic Pain Management; Breast Cancer; Renal Disease; Traumatic Brain Injury; Toxins in Everyday Life; and Sleep Disorders. For more information go to www.1199funds.org and click “Training & Employment,” and then on “Continuing Education,” or call 212-894-4390.
1199SEIU Professional & Technical Dept. Staff Listing and Areas of Responsibility Debora Hunte Pharmacy, Laboratory, Surgical Technicians—212-857-4398
Register today. Call: 212-894-4390
Dolores Chase Imaging, Respiratory, EMS Workers—212-261-2385
All programs will take place at 1199SEIU or at John Jay College. Please call for specific location on each seminar. Email: Institute @1199Funds.org www.1199Funds.org
Cynthia Wolff Social Work, Dietitians, Physician Assistants—212-261-2368 David Kranz, Director LPN’s, all other professions not mentioned above—212-261-2494