Housing and Health-and-Health Care and Big Tech

This is a two-part, in-person CE Class from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (6 hours of CE credits An extra credit hour will be available for University of California nurses from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Participants must be in attendance all day to receive the full 6 CEU CE credits, even if they have taken one of the classes prior to the sign-up date. This CE will provide a snapshot of the current housing crisis in the U.S. and examine how it is driving up cost of living, inequality, and poor health outcomes. We will investigate the causes of the housing crisis and how real estate has driven historic levels of inequality by serving as a primary vehicle for a massive consolidation of wealth for the richest 1% over the last several decades. The course will draw a connection between the role of private equity in health care and in housing to show how the problems of a lack of access to care and a lack of access to housing are linked and derive from policies that have rendered housing and health into economic sources of private profit at immense social cost. We will also analyze the public health impacts of the housing crisis by looking at studies on the health risks of poor housing, polluted neighborhoods, and homelessness. We’ll consider the impacts on nurses in particular (high cost of living with stagnating wages, increased patient loads, higher acuity, poor working conditions, etc.) and how nurses are fighting for health care and housing as human rights. ____________________________________________________________________________________ New technologies are being deployed in health care at an ever-increasing pace, but little information is shared with nurses and other health care workers about what the technologies are, how they work, and who ultimately benefits from their development. Through different case studies, this course will investigate tech companies’ involvement in health care and assess how the partnership between Big Tech and health care corporations impacts nurses and patients. We will also review how nurses can mobilize their advocacy to ensure that patients are protected against the untested and profit-driven deployment of technologies that may threaten their privacy and their safety. CE courses are free to National Nurses United members. If you’re interested in organizing a union at your facility, we can help.