From Code Red to Caring

In year two of the AFT’s multiyear Code Red initiative, affiliates across the country are fighting back against a corporatized healthcare system that jeopardizes patient care and worker well-being for the sake of profit. Code Red campaigns have led to groundbreaking staffing laws and greater focus on training and support systems that will bolster recruitment and retention. These victories are the result of AFT members’ fierce commitment to the fight—and are inspiring first steps toward the transformation we need.

The feature articles in this issue point toward several key elements in creating a healthcare system that prioritizes patients and workers. We start by hearing from four AFT affiliates about their ongoing Code Red campaigns, including two that are hard at work implementing and enforcing the staffing laws they won in 2023. Read how affiliates in Connecticut, Oregon, New York, and Alaska are supporting new healthcare workers, protecting essential services and care, and using staffing committees to ensure safe staffing levels.

Then, we examine some of the structural issues that have brought healthcare workers to this crisis point. “Caring for the Caregivers” provides a framework for what causes moral injury and what we must do to address and prevent it. In “Building a Morally Centered Healthcare Organization,” a researcher imagines a healthcare workplace that truly values staff and actively seeks to prevent moral injury, offering an exemplar for unions and frontline staff to focus their advocacy. In “Helping Healthcare Workers Heal,” a journalist describes the grief and trauma health professionals experience and outlines the systemic changes needed to restore humanity to an increasingly inhumane healthcare system. Finally, in “Creating a Healthy Community,” a retired educator describes a high school partially located in a hospital that is helping young people become healthcare professionals in their community. Together, these articles go to the heart of our union: fighting for a better life for all.

–EDITORS

[Photo: AFT]