Some 50 Interfaith members were among the 1199SEIU volunteers who helped get out the vote for Bill de Blasio on Primary Day. But 1199ers weren’t the only Interfaith workers who hit the streets. They were joined by a handful of Interfaith RNs, members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).
One of those NYSNA members was RN Charmayne Sadler-Walker. “I feel that Bill de Blasio is one of us,” she said. “He understands what it is to live in Brooklyn and what is needed to move the city forward.
“Health care is an issue that has driven his campaign for mayor,” Sadler-Walker says. She says she believes the other candidates had to address the issue because of de Blasio.
Sadler-Walker pointed to the day’s news to drive home her point about health care. During rush hour just hours before Primary Day, a New York Police car pulled over a black Camaro in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The Camaro took off, colliding with an MTA bus near Herkimer Street and Albany Avenue. Dozens of people were injured, at least 12 critically.
“About 29 of the injured passengers were taken to Interfaith,” Sadler-Walker noted. “In health cared, time is of the essence. This happened during rush hour. It was so crowded in the emergency room that even the VP of nursing had to help.
Sadler-Walker said she could recount many stories of lives saved in Bed-Stuy because of timely care at Interfaith. “It is a lifeline hospital,” she said. If you cut off the lifeline, you might as well sign the death warrants.
“Interfaith is in a strategic location and it was built to save lives, not to be closed,” she stressed. Saving lives is one of the chief reasons, Sadler-Walker, a former teacher, became an RN. But education remains one of her chief concerns.
“His views on education is another reason I’m supporting de Blasio,” she says. “ I don’t believe any society can advance without an educational system that addresses today’s needs and that can compete internationally.” In de Blasio’s platform is a proposal for higher taxes on the wealthy to help fund education for the city’s children.
Sadler-Walker and other NYSNA members will continue to work with 1199SEIU to save Interfaith, Long Island College Hospital and health care as a whole in Brooklyn. They say an important step in that campaign is to make Bill de Blasio, a healthcare and people’s champion, the next mayor of New York.
One of those NYSNA members was RN Charmayne Sadler-Walker. “I feel that Bill de Blasio is one of us,” she said. “He understands what it is to live in Brooklyn and what is needed to move the city forward.
“Health care is an issue that has driven his campaign for mayor,” Sadler-Walker says. She says she believes the other candidates had to address the issue because of de Blasio.
Sadler-Walker pointed to the day’s news to drive home her point about health care. During rush hour just hours before Primary Day, a New York Police car pulled over a black Camaro in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The Camaro took off, colliding with an MTA bus near Herkimer Street and Albany Avenue. Dozens of people were injured, at least 12 critically.
“About 29 of the injured passengers were taken to Interfaith,” Sadler-Walker noted. “In health cared, time is of the essence. This happened during rush hour. It was so crowded in the emergency room that even the VP of nursing had to help.
Sadler-Walker said she could recount many stories of lives saved in Bed-Stuy because of timely care at Interfaith. “It is a lifeline hospital,” she said. If you cut off the lifeline, you might as well sign the death warrants.
“Interfaith is in a strategic location and it was built to save lives, not to be closed,” she stressed. Saving lives is one of the chief reasons, Sadler-Walker, a former teacher, became an RN. But education remains one of her chief concerns.
“His views on education is another reason I’m supporting de Blasio,” she says. “ I don’t believe any society can advance without an educational system that addresses today’s needs and that can compete internationally.” In de Blasio’s platform is a proposal for higher taxes on the wealthy to help fund education for the city’s children.
Sadler-Walker and other NYSNA members will continue to work with 1199SEIU to save Interfaith, Long Island College Hospital and health care as a whole in Brooklyn. They say an important step in that campaign is to make Bill de Blasio, a healthcare and people’s champion, the next mayor of New York.
