Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/198597
New Orleans:Private 7/9/07 1:26 PM Page 17 "People try to gloss over these problems, but they need resources and help," said Lewis. "There's so much shame among nurses who have to take medication for depression, who have had suicidal thoughts, who struggle to get out of bed in the morning but do it and take care of their patients like they have to." She suggested support groups to help nurses and other caregivers discuss the problems and challenges they are facing and find ideas to help one another. "We're not only the helping hands, but victims ourselves and we're all trying to figure it out," said registered nurse Kim Lange, who worked at the Lindy Boggs Medical Center in New Orleans, which was flooded and subsequently closed for good. Lange is now the nurse for a public high school located just outside the French Quarter serving a student body from predominantly low-income households. "They're kids, so they're healthy, but they're having stress," she said. In some cases, displaced families have sent their children home to New Orleans to attend school while parents remain in the cities where they evacuated after the storm and found jobs. That means students are bringing many of the health issues parents would normally handle to the school nurse. When she sent one girl to the emergency room to be treated for an injury, Lange says, doctors there IAN MCNULTY Notice to Non-members This notice regarding fair share/agency fee rules is being issued for the 12month period of July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Regardless of whether the collective bargaining agreement between your employer and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/ NNOC) says that you are required to be a member, the only thing which you must do as a condition of continued employment is to pay service fees to CNA/NNOC. You have the right to be JUNE 2007 a non-member, but non-members forfeit the many rights and benefits of CNA/NNOC membership. CNA/ NNOC charges non-members the same amount in service fees as members pay in dues, but non-members are given an opportunity to object to funding certain expenditures by CNA/NNOC which are not germane to CNA/ NNOC's role as your exclusive collective bargaining representative and to have their fees reduced based on those activities. Non-members have the right to be given sufficient information to informed her the student was several months pregnant. "Emotionally, it's been very stressful. The majority of the kids are still in FEMA trailers," said registered nurse Laurie McInnis, who worked in home healthcare before the storm and is now a school nurse in St. Bernard Parish, the community adjacent to New Orleans where flood water damaged literally every structure. "The school nurse sees 150 kids a day, everything from Band-Aids to signs of serious illness," she said. "Parents aren't bringing kids to the doctor unless they are very ill, and it's because the wait is so long. The clinic is fully booked all the time. There's hours of waiting and it closes at 8 p.m. so there's hardly any time to get there after school or after work to get in line." At the seminar in May, CNA/NNOC members presented the St. Bernard Parish Public School District with a cash contribution collected from fellow members around the country to replace school nurses' equipment lost in the flood. The Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic also received a Patricia Berryhill, RN, a former Charity Hospital contribution from CNA/NNOC members to help fund its operations. nurse, converted her Nurses on the panel agreed a step in house into the Lower the right direction for New Orleans 9th Ward Health Clinic healthcare would be to gather informato provide care where tion about and make more accessible all there was none. the various resources available to people, such as community clinics, volunteer programs, and mobile clinics. They also stressed the importance of outreach and emphasizing decentralized healthcare services offered by nurses working through schools, churches, and community centers to help people understand and manage their health issues. Some of that is already happening at the grassroots initiatives like the Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic. "Patricia is trying to empower the patients," Craft-Kerney said of her colleague Berryhill. "Patients tell us all the time they've never been taught how to take care of themselves." I Ian McNulty is a freelance journalist based in New Orleans. Since Hurricane Katrina, he has been covering the disaster's impact on the community and its struggle to rebuild. enable them to make an informed decision on whether to object and to be told about CNA/NNOC's procedures for filing objections. Based on a review of the audited financial statement for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, it has been determined that expenditures chargeable to non-members who object to funding non-representational activities is 90.02 percent of the regular membership dues rate. If you want to object to funding certain expenditures by CNA/NNOC which are not germane to CNA/NNOC's role as your W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G exclusive collective bargaining representative for the one-year period July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008, you must notify CNA/NNOC of your objection in writing and your objection must be received within 35 days from the date of receipt of the issue of Registered Nurse containing this notice. Remember that choosing not to become a member of CNA/NNOC means that you will not have the right to vote on your contract or in union elections or to help formulate proposals for your next contract. REGISTERED NURSE 17