While North Carolina politicians ponder their role in the pandemic response, healthcare workers know they will be the first responders no matter what. That is why hospitals are pleading that state and local governments order people to shelter-in-place.
Meanwhile, the healthcare system is still bracing for the worst. Workers on the front lines are already putting in overtime rapidly preparing for shortages of beds and materials. How are these essential employees faring?
Labor organizing at two hospitals in the Mission Health system is under scrutiny after HCA, the company that owns Mission Health, asked for a delay in the process due to the pandemic...but is still holding anti-union meetings with nurses. How will the impending demands affect these negotiations? Host Anita Rao talks with Carolina Public Press managing editor Frank Taylor about the effort to unionize nurses in Western North Carolina.
Several healthcare workers join the conversation to describe their daily realities and anxieties, from a family nurse in Western North Carolina to a surgeon in Winston-Salem. Also joining are Audrey Snyder, associate dean for experiential learning and innovation at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Nursing, and Mike Waldrum, CEO of Vidant Health.