NNU has entered a new era in becoming part of an international campaign to advocate on behalf of not only our patients and Main Street communities at home, but people in crisis around the world, and to hold Wall Street and other global financial institutions accountable to heal our nations.
Trust me when I say that politics has become very personal this year; I’m a nurse. As nurses we ask our patients to “tell us where it hurts.†There are those who are too young and too medically fragile who don’t have the ability to utter a word; yet we see the result of an eroding social safety net etched on their faces and wreaking havoc on their health. It doesn’t have to be this way.
It is hard to pinpoint the precise moment when “good jobs†disappeared from national discourse, ignored by our leaders and the media that cover them. The phrase was invoked during President Obama’s campaign—that is, his first run for the presidency. But it soon disappeared in a West Wing dominated by Wall Street.
Registered Nurse Thorild Urdal told the Oakland City Council recently how she sees patients struggling everyday to survive during these tough economic times. They're delaying healthcare, rationing medication or not buying medication at all. “I see them coming in worse and worse shape, “ the Alta Bates Medical Center nurse said. That’s why Urdal and her fellow nurses are calling for a Robin Hood Tax to help our communities recover from the economic crisis caused by Wall Street.
For House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and the Republican Party’s unofficial austerity caucus, the shutdown and debt-ceiling fights did not end in defeat. As part of the deal to end reopen the government and avert a “full-faith-and-credit†crisis, they got an agreement to establish a House and Senate conference committee that is charged with pulling together a bipartisan budget plan.
RNs from Doctors Medical Center (DMC) are fighting to keep this critical facility open. Nurses are urging Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to assume authority of DMC, which has 79 percent of the hospital beds and 60 percent of the emergency care in the region. Closure would be a healthcare catastrophe!
Now that nurses, who have been sounding the alarm about Ebola for more than two months, finally have the attention of policy makers and everyone else, let's have no more excuses and take the critical steps needed to contain and eradicate this virulent disease in the U.S. and globally.
CNA President Emeritus Kay McVay, RN, has 80 years’ worth of stories to share about nursing, life, healthcare, and the rise of National Nurses United. Pull up a chair for a chance to learn from one of our nursing movement’s greatest leaders.
Here's a list of U.S. Senators who voted to authorize "fast track" on global trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership that has been written by corporate lobbyists and negotiated in secret.