National Nurses United

Profile 12/12/06 12:26 PM Page 14 The AIDS crisis forged RN k at h y dan i e l's strong duty to patient advocacy and activism, a lesson she works to share through CNA/NNOC. by bon n i e ho Teaching by I n 1979, when UCLA-Harbor Hospital admitted its first patient for AIDS, RN Kathy Daniel was working in the hospital's medical ICU and attending graduate school. As the epidemic spread in the United States, most of the general public, the medical community, and patients themselves feared for their lives. Uncertain of how the "plague," as many named it, was spread, nurses in San Francisco even planned to wear space suits whenever they made physical contact with patients. But while some saw only disease and death and tried to stay as far away as possible, Daniel saw scared, vulnerable young patients who desperately needed advocates for their health and humanity. With so much to be done to combat prejudiced attitudes, Daniel rose to the occasion. "My strong patient advocacy, interest, and commitment came through working with this young gay population, immunecompromised, with no representation, and no education," she said. Today, Daniel credits her strong foundation for activism to her experience working with these AIDS patients in the early 1980s. Now a home health services RN with UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Daniel continues to be an activist through her position on CNA/NNOC's board of directors, a role she's held since 1995. She was one of the first board members from Southern California to participate in CNA/NNOC's political action committee, and was instrumental in the early 1990s in significantly increasing the numbers of University of California RNs who joined the union. In those first years of the AIDS epidemic, Daniel devoted herself to learning as much as she could about the disease and promoting a medical environment among coworkers based on facts, not fear. She frequently called the Centers for Disease Control and other immunology centers to find out the latest on AIDS and try to get answers to questions about the little-understood disease process. As a result, she approached AIDS with the same caution she would use to ward off infection, using gloves and diligently washing her hands. When colleagues took irrational steps to barrier themselves against AIDS patients, sometimes taking precautions that weren't available to other patients sharing the same room, Daniel would show them their illogic by setting an example— often through her own style of contact with AIDS patients. In the intensive care units at UCLA, nurses discussed protection against AIDS and were encouraged to make rounds and ask questions. Daniel wanted fellow nurses to feel comfortable and to promote an open dialogue about the disease, so, playing the role of teacher, she would often use the approach, "You might be wondering" to initiate conversations and answer the questions some were afraid to ask. Other organizations weren't as enlightened. Daniel remembers calling mortuaries, trying to make arrangements to transport the dead, and finding that many refused to embalm or even cremate them. 14 REGISTERED NURSE Kathy Daniel raises a glow stick during a candlelight vigil in support of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center RNs who are trying to unionize. Other facilities, such as private-sector hospitals and nursing homes, similarly rejected patients. Without community resources and health insurance supporting AIDS patients, she said, caring for them fell almost entirely on medical providers working in the public sector. Largely through the efforts of Daniel and others like her, her workplace avoided the kind of panic that gripped other hospitals. "When we heard about the space suits, we probably would have had the same problem at our hospital, but we never considered or allowed that. Instead, I had nurses turning around to tell me, 'Isn't that silly?' or 'Don't they understand how this is transmitted?'" said Daniel. "My being persistent by either showing them or supporting them helped them, in fact, become educators between employees and patients. Hearing and seeing other having learned from what I have been able to teach them, teach others, and feel confident—that was a tremendous reward." Her hospital set up one of the first clinics for AIDS patients in Los Angeles County that would serve as a model for others to follow. Medical providers from her hospital shared what they learned by speaking nationally, writing papers, and communicating with the rest of the medical community. For more than a decade, Daniel worked as an HIV specialist, a caregiver, clinician, facilitator, researcher, and an educator. She taught the truth of AIDS contagion to her friends and, by example, to her fellow nurses. W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G NOVEMBER 2006

• Cover