Public Employee Press

Up the career ladder with DC 37
“Scalpel please”

On March 5, the students in Ms. Monica Redding’s Surgical Technologists class bustled around their improvised operating room at DC 37. As they readied a skit to demonstrate their new skills, they expressed their hopes for the future.

“I’m on a real career ladder,” said Patient Care Tech Euchayline Phillips. “It’s great that the union is providing us with an opportunity to go forward.”

Nicolas Sansur started out as a Transporter at Bellevue Hospital in 1994. “It’s wonderful that the union is offering us this chance,” he said.

Guests arrived and took their seats, and the surgical team went into action. “Jane Doe,” the patient, captured the greatest response from the attentive audience, with her dramatic yelps and cries.

“The operation was a success,” pronounced DC 37 Education Fund Administrator Barbara Kairson. “Welcome to yet another first for the Ed Fund — the first time we have had a surgical procedure take place during the course of the workday.” The program involves the Health and Hospitals Corp., DC 37, Local 420 and Bellevue Hospital.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts congratulated the students on their achievement as the first group to complete the first half of the eight-month program for Surgical Technologists. “I’m very close to this, since I was an OR Tech,” she said. “It’s a very important job.”

Hospital Division Director Pat Brooks noted that the union fought 10 years to get this training. Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 Vice President Togba Porte greeted the students. “We’re proud of you, brothers and sisters,” he said. “This is an important milestone,” said Helen Chappell, an assistant director of the Education Fund.

PCT Shirley Wright summed up her experience: “Patient care is my only focus. I am very honored that DC 37 is supporting my education.”

— Jane LaTour