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Annie Bryant
Certified Nurses Attendant / Yonkers, N.Y.
Delegate / Elected Rank-and-File Representative on the Executive Council
Annie Bryant is one of health care’s unsung heroes. She began caring for others when she was 19 years old as a Certified Nurses Attendant. That was 42 years ago, and she is still on the job today.
Annie works at the Regency Extended Care Center in Yonkers, NY on the night shift – 11pm to 7am. The nature of working nights in a place like Regency has changed in the past decades. It used to be that the residents were primarily elderly people, some with Alzheimer’s or other age-related infirmities, both physical and mental. Now, with the help of Home Health Aides, more and more elderly people are living at home with family.
The face of newer residents is younger, and comes with a different range of problems, from mental illness to drug and alcohol addiction. These newer, more active residents sometimes have trouble sleeping, and need someone to sit with them, or they try to run away in the small hours of the night. These ‘elopements’, as they are called, can have all hands on deck looking for them if they are not prevented first with the time and patience of CNAs like Annie.
Regency is going through the Culture Change process, helping to create a more home-like and people-centered environment for the residents. This makes the experience of living in a group environment less institutional and can ease the process for residents and workers alike.
Annie would like to see more in-service workshops on how to handle the needs of the newer residents, like physical outbursts against both staff and other residents. “It is clear that this is the type of resident that we are getting now, and we need more education in how to work with and help them,” she says.
Annie is an 1199SEIU Delegate, and credits the Union with opportunities for growth and learning within her job, and for standing up for the rights of workers and residents alike.
A deeply caring and compassionate woman, Annie spends her time away from work caring for people in another capacity. She is an ordained minister with the African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) Zionist Church of Yonkers, and director of Christian Education for the Westchester district – a coalition of roughly 25 churches.
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