Fear extends to veteran hospitals as Trump’s work cuts the work

When the Trump administration dismissed 2,000 test employees in the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this year, first -line health workers were saved from the president’s cuts. But Ann Marie Patterson-Powell said she and other Va nurses still felt the effects of layoffs.

The medical supplies became more difficult to locate in their oncology unit in the hospital in Durham, North Carolina, said Patterson-Powell. So he ended up going from floor to floor in search of blood fists, urinary, alcohol and gauze swabs. Nurses also had to help deliver food trays to patient rooms, something normally done by the food service team, he said.

Patterson-Powell was still doing her job, she was also doing other tasks.

“He took a while far from our patient care,” said Patterson-Powell, a VA nurse for 16 years who is also a union representative. “The moment when you could disassemble medications or doing some type of evaluation, or any type of treatment with my patient, I have to pass out [food] trays because the person who generally does it is no longer available. ”

“When supporting support staff, our work becomes more difficult,” he said.

The majority of the liberated probation workers have returned to their work, at least temporarily, thanks to a court order in March. The VA did not answer News themezone’s questions about those layoffs, even if workers in food equipment and services in Durham were among them, or any of them.

But they cut the VA and other federal agencies, with the Trump Board administration “Reduction in force“The plans and many workers who choose to give up. The VA, which provides medical attention and benefits to millions of veterans, could reduce around 80,000 Of its approximately 470,000 employees in the mass dismissal, according to a memorandum of the agency as of March.

“You can’t cut 80,000 employees and not reduce attention.”

– Irma Westmoreland, VA nurse and union leader

Trump’s secretary, former Republican congressman Doug Collins, has tried to offer guarantees that “Critical mission“The staff such as doctors and registered nurses will not be beaten with dismissals and, therefore, patient care will not deteriorate. But those who witnessed the initial shots, and subsequent resignations, since some workers look for safer works, said there is no way to maintain the same level of care with less bodies.

“We know that our patients will affect, and he [Collins] He is sitting here by saying that it is not, “said Irma Westmoreland, a nurse at the Norwood Medical Center goes in Augusta, Georgia.” We know it will affect us all. It cannot cut 80,000 employees and not reduce attention and not reduce benefits. ”

Like Patterson-Powell and other nurses are cited in this story, Westmoreland is also an official of National Nurses United, a union that represents nurses in several VA facilities, and only felt comfortable speaking in the record due to their union protections.

If the dismissals arrive at VA Medical Care Centers, nurses could end up squeezed due to the nature of their work. They are the point of contact that patients and families often resort when they need almost anything, be it medications, an update of the doctor’s notes, a journey to the bathroom or a warm blanket. VA is the largest nursing employer and nursing attendees in the country, with 120,000 in its rolls. Around 1 in 8 of the agency’s nurses are veteran.

Robert Malosh, a biomedical engineer of VA and president of his local union, said that some workers already have to collect additional duties due to the “Deferred Resignation Program” of the Administration, in which employees could resign and will still be paid until September. His union represents smaller satellite clinics in Michigan, where he said they lost 18 workers who chose to take what was announced as a “purchase.”

“Paying people not to work, we don’t understand it,” said Malosh, whose union, the American Federation of Local Government 2092, represents around 3,000 workers.

In the interviews, the nurses of VA said that many of their co -workers are considering letting the federal government work for private suppliers. Doctors and nurses were generally not eligible for the deferred resignation program, but some are still considering leaving now due to the low moral and the expectation that their work will only become more difficult.

Beverly Simpson, an infections control nurse, said she took a salary cut 11 years ago to leave a private hospital system and come to the center goes in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the same hospital to which she accompanied her stepfather when she was a child. He was attracted to job safety, strong retirement benefits and the guarantee of well -financed care for patients, all of which now seems in danger.

“It used to be the goal, because it was excellent as a nurse to work for the VA,” Simpson said. “That has changed completely. You are low stress with all these executive orders, without knowing if your co -workers will be here tomorrow.”

Bryan Dozier through Getty Images

One of the orders, President Donald Trump signed the objective of ending collective bargaining rights of up to one million federal workers under the unstable legal justification of “national security.” The order covers nurses, although they do not serve a real national security function, unless they know.

“What do I have to do with national security?” Said Patterson-Powell. “I take care of my patients. They enter, they need chemotherapy, I assure me that they understand it … Is that national security? It doesn’t feel that way for me.”

A federal judge initially blocked the policy of taking effect, but a court of appeals then allowed the administration to advance with it, since the underlying demand is litigated. If the administration manages to have union contracts, it would be much easier to fire federal employees without due process.

Simpson warned that it will finally degrade the medical care of VA by preventing nurses from speaking in the interest of patients.

“We would not have any resource to face management when they are doing things wrong,” he said.

Heather Fallon, a nurse from the emergency room at a Va va hospital, said he came to Va two years ago due to the agency’s resources.

“These cuts have already happened in the private sector. That is why many of us have ended up,” said Fallon, who has been a nurse for 19 years. “It is a coveted place to work. And if we are losing those benefits … losing the ability to safely care for our patients … Then people will not work there in the way they have wanted in the past.”

The employees of the whole VA are concerned about the agency’s ability to attract new workers in the current climate.

“These cuts have already happened in the private sector. That is why many of us have ended up.”

– Heather Fallon, VA nurse and union official

A VA surgeon said that “it has always been a bit difficult” to attract surgeons to come to the agency, since many can gain more in private practice. Few promising young doctors would like to start a career in the way under the confusion and uncertainty of the Trump era, he said. He is relieved that he only works in the part -time agency.

“I could always make a pivot to my private practice, but I would feel a lot of existential fear if I had full time in the VA,” said the surgeon, who asked to speak anonymously for fear of reprisals. “What it feels is that, without saying this, all this is an attempt to simply degrade the Va until it ceases to exist … it is difficult to imagine a future in which the is thrown out.”

A VA social worker said that they would probably have resigned if they were not so concerned about two private veterans in their helmet.

“I have to be honest, I already have a pension and good money in [the thrift savings plan]”They said, referring to the Government’s retirement plan.” I’ve been looking for. I put my curriculum. I am thinking of looking for an advice in a university. “

The VA is paying the Government’s Human Resources Office More than $ 700,000 To help plan the agency’s reduction, according to reports. The layoffs are blocked for now, but the administration could move quickly with them if a court order is raised. Even if a long judicial battle follows, many workers are likely to go to new jobs or retirees before the case is resolved.

And those who survive the cuts may not stay as long as they had planned.

Patterson-Powell, who is 61, said he would probably resign now if he had 20 years of service, but still has four before he can collect an immediate retirement benefit.

“We love what we do, and we want to make sure that our veterans get the best attention as possible,” he said. “For people like me who did not serve in the army, this is my opportunity to give back. This is my service for those who served. I know I am committed to doing so, but at this time it is difficult.”