Longtime UNAC/UHCP staff representative Sandy Oleson, RN, has passed away

October 2016

UNAC/UHCP is sorry to announce that former UNAC/UHCP staff representative and one time Board member Sandy Oleson, RN, has passed away.

“What you do comes back to you tenfold,” Sandy once said after being awarded the Outstanding Labor Volunteer of the Year award by the San Diego / Imperial Counties Central Labor Council in 2012. In her nursing career she delivered babies, fixed the hospital boiler, and everything in between. She learned to be flexible while growing up with nine siblings and frequently moving around the country as her father’s work demanded.

In 1979 Sandy moved to San Diego to take a job with Kaiser and worked there until 1992 when she became a UNAC/UHCP staff representative. She retired in 2014.

Sandy believed giving back to the community is part of being a caregiver. While Sandy took part in numerous food drives in the Imperial County, holiday toy and food distributions, the letter carriers’ food drive, and political activity such as precinct walking, phone banking, and rallies, what meant the most to her was walking the picket line with other workers.

“Nurses have so much. We were in solidarity on the picket line for people walking for $7 or $8 an hour in wages. We needed to be there. We are so blessed as nurses,” she told us. For Sandy, as a nurse, it came down to taking care of others beyond the bedside. She strongly encouraged nurses and other health care professionals to get involved in their communities, and to make their voices heard in the issues that impact their lives.