Policy Change
If I had the power to change or create a policy geared towards general health in my country, I would make some kind of law that states that more money, and respect, should go towards all healthcare workers. And I don’t just mean Doctors and Nurses, I’m also talking about housekeepers, nurses aids, and many other overworks, yet underpaid healthcare workers.
Don’t get me wrong, doctors and nurses are like superheroes (especially during nation and worldwide pandemics such as Covid19) but we must also remember that superheroes have sidekicks; who are just as important in the success of the mision. Doctors and nurses aren’t the only healthcare workers risking their lives to save others, we also have people like nurse aids and housekeepers who keep homes clean and take care of the elderly, who are more susceptible to many viruses and diseases.
“Too often, we overlook the heroism and dignity of millions of low paid, undervalued, and essential health workers.” Says Molly Kinder of the Metropolitan Policy Program; recently, she interviewed a woman named Sabrina Hopps, a 46-year-old housekeeping aide in a nursing facility in Washington D.C. “If we don’t clean the rooms correctly the pandemic will get worse,” said Hopps. Many aides care deeply about the patients they work with, and know their job goes well beyond cleaning.
Yet despite their contributions, they don't feel recognized. “Housekeeping has never been respected,” Hopps told Kinder, “When you think about healthcare work, the first thing you think about is doctors and nurses. You don’t think about housekeeping, maintenance, dietary, nursing assistants, patient care techs, and administration.” Kinder spent time interviewing many more underpaid healthcare workers and she reported that “Despite being declared “essential,” the workers described feeling overlooked and deprioritized, even expendable. They spoke with pride about their work, but few felt respected, even as they put their lives on the line. Many expressed frustration, and sometimes anger, over their lack of life-saving protective equipment.”
All the same, I feel it would be essential that these workers are made to feel like they are important. This starts with simply recognizing their value, but we could do more. Recommendations such as tools to keep workers safe on the job, compensating them with reasonable salaries, supporting them if they get sick, and giving them the respect and appreciation they deserve would go a long way in making them feel as important as their “superhero” counterparts.
A priority for policymakers and employers should be keeping health workers safe on the job. Shortages of life saving personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical masks, respirators, isolation gowns, gloves, and face shields are jeopardizing workers’ lives. A poll showed that doctors and nurses reported shortages in masks as early as May. PPE shortages are also a matter of life and death for millions of health care support, service, and direct care workers on the Covid-19 frontline. These workers are at a lower priority for already insufficient supplies, meaning that hospitals and health care facilities overlook their safety as they ration PPE and prioritize doctors and nurses.
The low pay that health care support, service, and direct care support workers earn has long been inadequate; and during a pandemic, it can prove stressful. I think congress should enact a hazard pay to ensure that no worker risking their life is paid less than a family sustainable income. For people working in health jobs, hazard pay is important. Kinder interviewed more workers whom she said “expressed a strong desire for hazard pay.” Additional compensation would be life saving for them, allowing some to take a taxi instead of risking exposure to Covid-19 via public transit.
And finally, we all need to make a conscious effort to make the workers feel respected. “Even before Covid-19,” Kinder says, “workers like Yolanda Ross (a 55 year-old health worker outside Richmond VA.) said her work was not respected.” She told Kinder that low-wage health workers like her are “underpaid, overlooked, and forgotten about, but yet depended upon.” While others on the frontline who are deemed “important” are valued differently. The Covid-19 pandemic has already uprooted so many aspects of society, the economy, and our lives. “I pray there is a redirection,” Yolanda says, “that we stop doing things the same old way and listen to those who don’t have a voice.”
It’s long past time that low-wage workers who are essential to our society are treated with dignity. Employers, colleagues, policymakers, and the general public have their part to playin finally giving these workers the respect they rightfully always deserved. It can change, there is hope.
Comments
Post a Comment