National Nurses United

O ne day this past September, registered nurse Allysha Almada opened a very surprising email in her inbox. It con- tained an elegantly lettered invitation from President Obama to attend an event, the White House Summit on Worker Voice. At first she thought it was a hoax. Why would the president be inviting her, a 28-year-old registered nurse from Pasadena, Calif., to such a high-profile gathering? She made some phone calls and, to her delight, the invitation was real! A few whirlwind weeks later, Almada was at the White House attending the summit with 200 other participants, including labor unions, worker organizations, and nonprofits engaged with organiz- ing for better work conditions. While she was there, she managed to personally speak to President Obama and hand him the brightly wrapped gift she had brought all the way across the country on behalf of National Nurses United RNs, a stethoscope engraved with the words, "Listen to nurses," and "Nurses are at the heart of patient care." Prior to her trip to the District of Columbia, Almada learned the hard way that many hospital employers are not listening to nurses, especially when they speak out to improve patient care and work- place conditions. Almada got fired for doing just that. Up until August 2015, Almada was working at Huntington Memorial Hospital, a privately operated 635-bed hospital located in Pasadena, just 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Hunt- ington employs 1,200 RNs and is one of the highest profit-generat- ing hospitals in the region. Almada was thrilled when she was hired to work in the critical care unit at Huntington after graduating from nursing school five years ago. She had always thought of the hospital as a second home. She was born in the maternity unit, where her mother, Rhea Almada, has worked as an RN for 30 years. As a child, she spent time at the hospital in the day- care center and volunteered along with her sister as a candystriper. "Nursing is a hard job and my daughters saw me when I came home tired," said Almada's mom, Rhea. "But when you help families and patients go through the hard times and joys in their lives, it is a blessing to be there. That's what nursing is all about." Inspired by her mother, Almada decided to follow in her foot- steps and become a registered nurse. "I think the fact she made sure my sister and I played with nurse and doctor outfits as children also contributed to why we both became RNs," said Almada, whose sister Adrienne works in the labor and delivery unit at California Medical Center in Los Angeles, a CNA-represented hospital. Both Almada and her mother were proud to work at Huntington and always believed that the hospitals' top executives put patient care first. Her perspective changed after a few years on the job when, despite dramatic increases in the hospital's net income and the salaries of the top brass, conditions began to deteriorate. First, ignoring input from RNs, the hospital rolled out a very flawed electronic health record system that delayed care and reduced the time nurses had to spend with patients. The hospital was also chronically shortstaffed and started rationing supplies, including IV pumps, clean patient gowns, and linens. "Many of my patients in the ICU had compromised immune sys- tems and were at high risk for infection. Many were on medications that cause diarrhea as a side effect," explained Almada. "It is absolutely essential to have adequate supplies of clean linens and yet the hospital insisted on limiting these basic necessities. I remember fashioning a toga out of bed sheets for a patient one night since there would be no fresh supplies till morning." Almada was initially skeptical when, in spring 2014, some coworkers invited the California Nurses Association to help improve conditions at 14 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 Ms. Almada Goes to Washington RN Allysha Almada, fired for union organizing, journeys to the capital to speak on behalf of nurses and workers' rights. by Martha Wallner

• Cover