Nurses start the day with a relaxation exercise led by Kelly Nedrow, the AFT’s senior director for health services, who also teaches yoga and meditation.

As she welcomes nurses to the conference, UFT Vice President Anne Goldman compliments them for their “ferocious” advocacy for patient care amid short-staffing and other challenges in corporate health care.

Moncef Righi, an operating room nurse with NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn, talks to colleagues in the workshop “Social Media for Nurses,” in which they learned how to increase their online clout.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew says he is honored to be working on behalf of nurses in their fight to ensure the state Department of Health enforces the Safe Staffing Quality Care Act.

AFT Senior Director for Health Services Kelly Nedrow details the AFT’s CODE RED: UNDERSTAFFING = PATIENT CARE CRISIS campaign to improve the quality of care patients receive across the country.

NYU Langone Brooklyn operating room nurse Claire Costello tries on the new Federation of Nurses/UFT hat during lunch.

School nurses gather for a photo with Chapter Leader Cynthia Bennett (standing, right) at the conference.

Nurses learn about the latest medications and protocols for chronic heart failure from Nancy M. Albert of the Cleveland Clinic Health System in the workshop “Heart Failure — Do Not Fail to Manage Your Patient's Heart!”

Nurses listen and learn in the morning workshop titled “Just Breathe: Current Pulmonary Trends.”