Role of Unions in Catholic Health Care is Focus of 15th Annual Drummond Lecture

C ontroversial subjects surrounding the role unions play in Catholic health care systems will be addressed at the 15th annual Drummond Lecture, sponsored by the Center for Health Care Ethics.

The lecture is free and open to the public and will be at noon, Friday, March 3, in the Margaret McCormick Doisy Learning Resources Center Auditorium.

"There is an increasing interest in the development of labor organizations in Catholic health care," said Dr. Gerard Magill, director of the Center for Health Care Ethics. "The principle of solidarity exhorts employers and employees to function together in a manner that enhances the common good. The principle of subsidiarity encourages employers and employees to foster representation, ordinarily at the local level of the organization."

The topic of unions will be presented from three perspectives:

Magill will discuss how the role of unions in Catholic health care is determined by the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.

Dr. Joan Carter, associate dean of the School of Nursing, will consider how the increasing interest in unions among nursing staff reflects advocacy concerns for quality care.

Griffin Trotter, M.D., assistant professor at the Center for Health Care Ethics, will explain that although labor organizations may enable physicians to advocate locally for patients, unionization continues to be fraught with difficulties for the medical profession.

The Drummond Lecture series was instituted in 1985 to honor the Rev. Edward J. Drummond, SJ. He was the first vice president for the medical center from 1962 until 1973. Until his death in July 1991, Drummond was active in education and in the Jesuit order both locally and nationally.

Drummond's dedication to his vocation and his vision for the medical center can be summed up in his words, spoken in 1964: "This must be a place where learning continues and care is delivered in an atmosphere that remains personal in an increasingly technological society. We must be dedicated to scientific truth and committed to a tradition that sets medical knowledge and medical service in a significant relationship to God and our fellow men and women."

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