SHARE PCAs and Unit Secretaries Stand Together

We are the SHARE PCAs and Unit Secretaries at UMass Memorial Hospitals. As the eyes and ears of the healthcare team, our jobs are physically and emotionally demanding. We are committed to providing high quality patient care every day, but it’s getting more and more difficult.

Workload: We are often short-staffed and our assignments are heavy. We don’t have time to train new PCAs and Unit Secretaries well. Giving the personal touch to our patients is what makes the job meaningful for us and the patients feel cared for. But there’s not enough time.

Our Pay is Too Low: Many of us must work over-time to make ends meet for our families. We watch co-workers leave to make more money somewhere else or to go to school.

We’re burned out: It’s a vicious cycle – the workload is heavy and the pay is low. This leads our co-workers to leave, so then we are more short-staffed. That makes the workload even heavier, and requires us to train new-comers.

Respect and Having a Voice: Though PCAs and Unit Secretaries play a vital role in patient care, many of us don’t feel respected in the healthcare team. We are working through our PCA Committees to improve communication.

Finding a Solution Together

We believe that improving our workload, our pay, and respect will improve our lives – as well as the lives of our patients and our co-workers – and will be good for UMass Memorial Hospitals. We propose to meet with senior leadership to discuss these issues. We are optimistic that together we can find solutions.