RFPU Events, Racial Justice

Workshop: Caring for Patients Who Are Incarcerated

The Care of Incarcerated Patients Task Force is excited to announce an upcoming workshop on caring for patients who are incarcerated or otherwise involved with law enforcement in the UW Medicine system. The purpose of this session is to train residents and fellows in how best to advocate and care for patients in the ED, inpatient setting, OR, and clinics, including how to navigate working with police and guards and dealing with forensic restraints, issues of privacy and consent, involving family in care, and other important topics. 

The workshop will be put on by Dr. Marc Stern and Dr. Lara Strick and will take place on Saturday March 20th from 9am-12pm via zoom. It will also be recorded. If you are interested in joining or would like us to send you the recording, please register here.

Best,
NURF, HQSC, and RFPU-NW

Speakers:

Dr. Marc F. Stern, MD, MPH is an Internal Medicine physician, Affiliate Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington and Clinical Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Albany. He is an expert and consultant in Correctional Health Care and served as the Assistant Secretary for Health Services for the Washington State Department of Corrections.


Dr. Lara B. Strick, MD, MS is an Infectious Disease physician and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington. She works at Harborview Medical Center treating patients with HIV as well as for the Washington State Department of Corrections seeing patients with viral hepatitis and HIV. She is also co-chair of the state prison system’s Infection Prevention Program and works for the Mountain West AIDS Education & Training Center as the Corrections Program Director. 

RFPU Uncategorized

Reminder: Constitutional Amendment Election Closes at midnight on 2/28/21

Our union’s capacity has grown significantly since we were legally recognized in 2014, starting from just a few board members to now having an eighteen-person board with three professional labor staffers. Due to these changes, we’ve reflected on what has evolved and suggest a number of amendments. 

See below for the main highlights or your ballot for all the proposals.

The ballot for this election is open for two weeks.
Voting closes at midnight on February 28, 2021. 

All dues-paying members received their personal ballot on their non-UW emails via Survey Monkey on 2/14, with reminders on 2/18 and 2/22. 

If you did not receive this ballot, but believe you are a dues-paying member, please check your spam folder first. If it is not there, please contact us at admin@rfpu.org

RFPU Grievances

Grievance Win: Chief Resident Stipends

For the past three years, psychiatry department leadership has made various attempts to avoid paying all chief residents their monthly stipend. This has never sat right with residents. This year, RFPU was enlisted to advocate for psychiatry residents and hold the employer accountable to our contract. In late January, the formal grievance process was pursued to prevent stipend withholding from future classes. Due to the requirements of the grievance process, the RFPU grievance team was able to enforce that psychiatry department leadership work with GME to update their policy and provide a written guarantee to pay all current and future psychiatry chief residents their full stipend. This is a huge success! 

Thank you to the psychiatry residents who reached out to us and advocated for their peers!

If your program is withholding chief resident stipends (regardless of FTE), please reach out to let us know. All chief residents are guaranteed $175/month.

RFPU Events

Event: Improving Gender Equity Through Unions

You know what’s good for improving gender equity at your workplace? Unions!

RFPU Board Members, Drs. Amy Zhang and Heather Barnett will be presenting our abstract, “Improving Gender Equity Through Unions” at this year’s Women in Medicine Training Summit at Mass General.

📆Join us on March 6th!
Summit: 6:00am- 9:15am PT
Abstract Presentation: 7:45am PT

Free Registration: https://bit.ly/WIMsummit21

RFPU Endorsements

RFPU – NW Endorses the Sawant Solidarity Campaign

Councilmember Sawant has been the most strong, reliable, and inspiring voice for working class and vulnerable people of Seattle. She was one of the first to show up and lend her support to RFPU-NW and exploited physicians in training from our earliest days, long before we had significant success, power or momentum. We are proud to have a Councilmember who so consistently fights for workers like us, and our patients.

As ordinary people face deep inequality, unaffordable housing and evictions, economic crisis, police violence, and climate crisis, we need her voice in Seattle City Hall now more than ever.

Endorsed on January 13, 2021