AFT Healthcare-Maryland president Debra Perry reports that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) and the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing are co-sponsoring free training courses for all DHMH nurses. An online course, "Immunization Techniques Training for Nurses,” teaches the skills necessary for vaccination administration and child restraint, and prepares healthcare professionals licensed and approved to provide vaccinations in Maryland with the necessary fundamentals to qualify them for 1 CNE contact hour.

In addition, nurses have an opportunity to validate their

The Maryland Professional Employees Council (MPEC) and AFT Healthcare-Maryland will continue their negotiations with state officials on a new Memorandum of Understanding in a meeting scheduled for November 1, 2013, at the Maryland Department of Transportation in Hanover, Maryland. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.

AFT Healthcare-Maryland president Debra Perry has called for an immediate investigation of unsafe working conditions at the Thomas B. Finan Center in Cumberland, Maryland, where a staff member was brutally attacked and injured October 14th.  The staff member was stabbed in the back of the head with a seven-inch galvanized spike while trying to restrain a combative patient.

According to Perry, the attack underscores the need for a comprehensive violence prevention program, as recommended by the Ocupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Perry called for a thorough investigation into

Saturday night, a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman, a man who killed an unarmed teenager in cold blood. While we believe in the rule of law and while the jury has spoken, the implications of the acquittal are profound. It is disappointing that a racially profiled, unarmed African-American young man can be shot dead with no consequences for the perpetrator.

Urge Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Justice Department to continue their investigation.

This case reminds us that the path to racial justice is still a long one, and that our legal and moral systems do not always mesh. The