CONCORD, N.H. – In her February 2016 State of the State Address, New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan announced plans to create a special commission to tackle the state's shortage of health care workers. Since offering fair wages and decent benefits are the key to attracting and retaining good employees in any industry, it's no surprise that one of Hassan's first appointments to the commission was Brenda Howard, a Medication Nursing Assistant/Licensed Nursing Assistant (MNA/LNA) and member of AFSCME Local 2679.

Howard, a 32-year employee at Maplewood Nursing Home in Westmoreland, will serve as the sole union representative on the 14-member Governor's Commission on Health Care Workforce. Howard is a Local 2679 Executive Board Member and member of the negotiating team.

Howard's experience gives her more than a few ideas of how to change the health care workforce for the better. While a lot of focus is on recruiting new workers into health care, Howard says that retention of health care workers is a major issue as well.

"Keeping the ones you have is just as important as hiring new workers," Howard said. "We lose a lot of them. We need to nurture them, make them feel more wanted and treat them better to make sure they want to stay."

Howard's six years on the New Hampshire Board of Nursing outlines a path that she can follow. During her service, the state faced a major shortage of nursing workers. She helped develop the idea of the medication nursing assistant (MNA), who assists nurses by providing non-injection medications, allowing the nurse to deliver more intensive treatments and perform more assessments.

"Over the years, nurses have come to respect MNAs and see that they are a benefit," she said.

New Hampshire State House in Concord, N.H.
(Courtesy of Teemu008/Flickr)

The path to Howard's selection by the governor started with a phone call between Harriett Spencer, AFSCME Council 93's New Hampshire coordinator, and Amy Kennedy, the governor's policy director, to discuss our representation of health care workers in the state. Spencer informed Kennedy of our extensive representation of nursing home workers, and when they discussed Howard's extensive elder health care experience and her union leadership, they agreed that she would be a perfect fit.

Hassan has repeatedly shown that she is an ally to workers and public servants in New Hampshire during her administration. She has fought off attempts by Republicans in the state legislature to attack worker's rights through "right to work" legislation. Earlier this year, Hassan instituted a plan to spend nearly $100 million in federal funds over the next five years to create a jobs program to get people off public assistance programs and into the workforce.

Governor Hassan understands that workers like Brenda Howard have the best understanding of how to improve their jobs and the services that they provide. Bringing that understanding to Concord will help us protect worker's rights and ensure job security for public service health workers.