An exclusive interview: The registered nurse fighting for fair working conditions

I feel like I've always had that nurturing aspect to me. When I was younger, I always knew I wanted to be in healthcare, but I didn't necessarily know I wanted to be a nurse. For my first undergrad degree I did pre-med, and then decided not to go that route. I worked a bunch of different jobs for a few years after I graduated. At my last job before I went into nursing school, I worked with a bunch of nurses and they all loved their jobs, and I'm like, "I just want to do that, too. I want to make okay money and be excited about going to work." So that's when I went back to school for an accelerated nursing program. I originally wanted to do geriatrics, so I worked in a nursing home for a little bit. When we moved out to Pittsburgh, the summer before COVID hit, I jumped into postpartum. I actually started a month before COVID so I was just coming off my orientation.

When I got hired right before the pandemic, there were rumblings about a union. People were like, "should we have a vote? Should we not have a vote? Is that something we want at this hospital?” Our network already had a few union hospitals, so that's how things got started. We saw them and what they had, their protections. When I got started there, I had a few seasoned nurses come up to me and say, “Hey, I know you're new, but this is the union. This is what we want to do, is this something you're interested in?" And I said, "yeah, let me go to a meeting and see what they have to say about it before I commit to anything." They really did not have to do any convincing: I was like, “yeah, I'm in, this is definitely something that I want to be a part of.”

Kayla Rath works as a postpartum registered nurse on the maternal newborn unit at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kayla earned her first degree in biology on the pre-med track from Pennsylvania’s University of the Sciences, but graduated from the University of Rochester’s Accelerated Bachelor’s Program for Non-Nurses in 2017 after trying out a few different jobs. She is licensed in New York and Pennsylvania, and is BLS and NRP certified. She also became a certified breastfeeding counselor in May. She moved to Pennsylvania just before the pandemic. In Pittsburgh, Kayla got involved with a union contract fight at her network, where she served on the negotiating committee.

NurseDeck’s Insider’s Perspective magazine is a 100% free publication established to spread awareness and build valuable connections with the nursing community. We do not work with advertisers.