Member Spotlight: Jetta Williams

Jetta Williams has been an RN at Western Maryland Hospital Center (WMHC) for two years, and has been a member of AFT Healthcare-Maryland for the last four months. Jetta said that “other members kept on asking me to join and a lot of people were doing it, too. I didn’t see any reason not to join.” She wishes that her co-workers who are not full members of AFT Healthcare-Maryland would be more open-minded. She believes her union gives her the ability to collaboratively work for the betterment of all employees. Jetta is responsible for making sure her patients receive the correct medication. She also educates her patients and documents their day-to-day conditions.

Additionally, she communicates with hospital staff to ensure everyone is on the same page in meeting the patients’ needs. Jetta calls the WMHC "its own little community". They have various community activities like senior games, yoga classes, and karaoke.

“WMHC takes care of the people nobody else would otherwise. If someone doesn’t have health insurance they are not turned away,” she said.

Jetta believes that privatization of WMHC would likely worsen care. After working at other privatized facilities, she has witnessed this firsthand. Privatization, she fears, would likely result in more patients and less staff. That means WMHC would lose the ability to make the hospital feel like a community.

2016-05-19