October 30, 2026 — PEF delegates who work as nurses at OMH, OPWDD, DOCCS and several other agencies attended a lunch hour workshop hosted by the Statewide Nurses’ Committee during Convention this year. Each year, the lunch focuses on bringing new information or helpful tools to nurses working for the state, who often work long hours and in dangerous situations.
“You are all leaders here and as President Spence said during his State of the Union address, we’re doing great,” said PEF Statewide Nurses’ Committee Co-Chair Amy Lee Pacholk. “And we’re doing great because you’re participating.”
Pacholk asked that the nurses in the room continue to stay involved, especially during the annual lobbying day each spring, when nurses travel to Albany for two days of education on the issues facing nurses and visit New York State Senators and Assemblymembers to share their stories and get those issues addressed.
Pacholk also introduced Nurse Consultant Debbie Egel. Egel told attendees to keep filling out Protest of Assignment (POA) forms whenever they have a complaint to log with management about something they are tasked to do. PEF uses those forms to support nurses faced with hazardous working conditions. The data gathered allows the union to make the case to management about unsafe working conditions, and to protect the nursing licenses of members.
Egel said that every leader in the room should not only be filling out POA forms whenever necessary, but encouraging others to do so as well.
“This tool is only useful if you’re actually using it,” said Egel. “If you’re unsafe at work, your fellow nurses and those you’re taking care of are also unsafe. If you’re short-staffed, that affects everyone. You need to get together and file these POAs, document and be fearless. Hospitals and institutions cannot run without you.”
Both Egel and Pacholk told PEF nurses that they would be working hard to change the dynamic of how PE nurses organize going forward and introduced two new Nurse Coordinators as part of that change.
India Walton is one of two Nurse Coordinators hired by PEF. She is based in Buffalo, and will cover nurses in Region 1 through 8. She said she is a fierce advocate and is prepared to fight for whatever nurses need.
“I’m really excited to be in this position. I have worked as a nurse for over 20 years,” Walton said. “I love to stay in the streets and in somebody’s face about what’s right. I believe that this is the right thing to do and we have every right to do it.”
The second nurse coordinator, Mariel Hernandez-Abuelsaad, will cover Regions 9 through 12 and will work out of the Region 9 office in Poughkeepsie. Hernandez-Abuelsaad is a registered nurse who knows firsthand the dangers of the job and the need for POAs.
“I know what it means to file a POA. My previous union pushed a big campaign to get safe staffing ratios put into our contract,” she said. “Working with you all, and Debbie Egel, we’re going to be able to really put some teeth to all the things we’re doing. We’re going to do great things together!”
To conclude the luncheon, Pacholk introduced Nancy Norton, a registered nurse and award-winning comedian who uses her unique blend of nursing and comedic styling to teach healthcare workers how to stay healthy through humor. Norton believes that in addition to lowering stress hormones, laughter can prevent burnout, help with team bonding, and improve job retention.
“I was destined into nursing,” said Norton. “My mom was a nurse. My dad was an alcoholic, so I had a combo platter. Seriously, I am a fifth-generation nurse. My mother, her mother, and her mother, and so on.”
Norton’s jokes hit on many of the things that nurses often push to the back of their minds, including the harsh realities of codependency, alcoholism, and family drama due to the working conditions nursing can sometimes inflict. However, she said that laughter can bring people back together.
“You were all talking about filing out POAs and staying united earlier, and that really fired me up,” she said. “I’m not even in your union and I’m filling out a POA right now. You got into this line of work to save lives, and I got out of it for the same reason! I’m here to heal with humor.”
