DURHAM, N.C. — Some nurses in North Carolina on Wednesday protested what they call a compromise of care for our nation’s bravest and best.
The Department of Veterans Affairs employs hundreds of thousands of workers. Like many federally funded agencies right now, it’s facing staff cuts.
Members of the North Carolina chapter of National Nurses United, the largest organization to represent nurses in America for collective bargaining and workers’ rights, joined a rally outside the Durham VA Medical Center.
Several held signs addressing President Donald Trump’s decision to make deep cuts at the VA.
One health care worker said she is being pulled away from taking care of patients at their bedside to do tasks that were previously assigned to other paid hospital staff.
Ann Marie Patterson-Powell, a nurse in the North Carolina VA medical network and a member of the union, said caring for war-torn patriots is her life’s purpose.
“I came to work for the VA because this is my way of serving. This is my way of giving back to those who have served,” Patterson-Powell said. “I came to work for the VA because this is my way of serving. This is my way of giving back to those who have served,” Patterson-Powell said.
Since the Pact Act, more veterans have signed up for VA health care than at any time before, but these nurses say the cuts are going to erase the progress they’ve made in the quality of the care for military veterans.
“They come back sometimes with body parts missing and with life-changing injuries. We are trained to take care of these specific types of patients,” she said.
Statistics posted on the VA online workforce dashboard show veterans make up 27.6% of the federal agency’s employees.
Patterson-Powell, who has been a nurse more than 20 years, said decreasing staff will have an immediate impact. The surgical-oncology unit already has felt the effects of eliminating 2,400 probationary employees nationwide who focused on tasks such as getting supplies and carrying meals to patient rooms that now fall on her.
“We fear that if they cut even more, then the nurses are adding more jobs to what we're doing already that doesn't involve direct patient care,” Patterson-Powell said.
VA Secretary Doug Collins confirmed changes are coming last month on YouTube.
“Our goal is to reduce VA employment levels to 2019 in-strength numbers, roughly 398,000 employees, from our current level of approximately 470,000 employees,” Collins said in the video.
Collins visited the Asheville VA Medical Center in March and spoke to the media about his mission. Protesters greeted him with signs advocating for the protection of jobs.
“The minute somebody says let's change something, ‘Oh, you can't touch that.' So let me just tell outside folks, I'm going to work hard to take care of the VA employee and put the veteran first,” Collins said.
Patterson-Powell isn’t so sure.
“Secretary Collins says he is trying to improve care by cutting more staff when we are already short-staffed. That doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Officials insist that changes at the VA will not come at the expense of veterans or their health care.
“We will reform the department to make it work better for veterans, families, caregivers and survivors," VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said. "We’re going to maintain VA’s mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors, while phasing out non-mission essential roles like interior designers and DEI officers."
"We will accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans or VA beneficiaries,” Kasperowicz said.
The cuts are expected by August, according to a memo originally obtained by The Associated Press.
