National Nurses United

Profile 2/14/07 4:18 PM Page 14 r e l i e d e m a - a l a has never been afraid to tackle the unknown, whether in organizing her hospital or moving to the U.S. by bon n i e ho Change for the B T he year was 2000 and Relie Dema-ala, RN had been nursing for many years, having worked at Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center for 18 of them. But she decided she couldn't take it anymore. For the past three to five years, the nurses at her Los Angeles-area hospital had lost several of their benefits, including premiums, weekend pay, and several holidays. Years went by without any pay increases. What did increase was the number of patients per nurse, surpassing 10 at times. With some nurses quitting in less than a year, her unit was always understaffed. There was always a vacancy during the night shift, and even though management told the nurses at every meeting not to work overtime, more patients kept on being admitted all night long. Her quality time with patients—what she enjoyed most about being a nurse—was being robbed from her. "It felt good to be able to talk to patients, to be able to teach them, to be able to discuss with them their diagnosis," said Dema-ala, a medical-surgical RN. "That was a kind of luxury because we were always pressed for time. I didn't feel like we had the time to actually do the actual teaching because we were being pulled in so many ways. A lot of people wanted you, other nurses wanted you, the other patients wanted you. You were always in a hurry to finish something. To me it always felt like you were running after something." She and the other nurses were feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and "pretty desperate" at the time. Nurses would complain, but nothing was being done. Around that time, Dema-ala had started to read news reports about how a union called the California Nurses Association was pushing for RN-to-patient ratios, and learning about improvements nurses won at nearby St. Vincent Medical Center after they joined the union. Nurses from Glendale contacted CNA and soon after, CNA organizers arrived. "Instead of moving, I decided to stay and fight," said Dema-ala. "It was hard. It was hard to talk to people at first because there is the question of trust, but in the end we won. I think that was the best thing that happened to the hospital." Dema-ala stayed and continues to work at the hospital. Since Glendale's unionization in 2001, Dema-ala became an active proponent of CNA, and eventually became a board member in 2002. She helped spread the word about her hospital's improvements to nurses at other hospitals. She joined CNA's political activities, volunteering during campaign elections, and participating in rallies to get staffing ratios approved. After ratios went into effect, Dema-ala said she reclaimed the time to talk to patients again. Dema-ala was first exposed to nursing when she was very young growing up in Iloilo, the Philippines. She remembers nurses taking 14 REGISTERED NURSE care of her father during his sickness when she was only five or six years old. Her aunts who were nurses served as her mentors, talking to her about their work at the hospital, sharing the realities of nursing that outsiders do not usually see. "I thought at the time what they told me was horrible, but they were actually telling me the reality of the job, not just the white uniform that you see, not just nurses walking up and down the hallway," said Dema-ala. "In a way, they were cautioning me that, if I had to become a nurse, this is actually going on in the hospital. So it's up to me to pursue nursing. I just decided to give it a try. I was determined to become one." After high school graduation, she chose nursing over teaching, and passed the nursing entrance exam. After graduating nursing school in 1972, she worked in Iloilo for a year. When her classmates chose to move, she followed them to Manila. While working and taking classes full time for a bachelor's degree in nursing, her friends, by chance, passed an agency advertising for nurses to work in the United States. They went in to inquire. A year later, in 1974, Dema-ala and her friends found themselves W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA RY 2 0 0 7

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