Blog

Retired RN Kay McVay Honored with 2013 “RAGE for JUSTICE” Award

Kay McVay worked as a registered nurse in critical care for nearly four decades before retiring in 1995. She is a tenacious and effective champion of patients’ rights who was elected and served as the former Vice President, and then President of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee from 1994 to 2003. As a young girl growing up in Compton, California, school counselors discouraged her aspirations to become a nurse. The rest is history.

California Nurses Association

National Nurses Mobilize for Philippines Relief Effort

In the aftermath of the devastation from Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Philippines, one of the worst storms on record, the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), a project of National Nurses United, has put out a call for volunteers and donations through its vast network of direct-care nurses both nationally and internationally.

National Nurses United

The doctor is NOT in

The slippery slope for patients, nurses, and doctors posed by robots in healthcare. For patients needing dialysis or care for acute kidney failure, there’s a new doctor in the nephrology ward at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, Calif. Meet the doc on a stick. It’s not a scene from “Star Trek” or the latest X-box video game. And, like the smooth-sounding, but ominous “Hal” computer running the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” those side effects might be a killer.

National Nurse Magazine

NNU Nurses Score Big Win: CA's New Safety Guidelines Set Precedent for Nation's Healthcare Workers

Nurses are celebrating California’s recent announcement of precedent-setting Ebola patient care guidelines that call for strong healthcare worker protections and provide a model for federal and state action for all U.S. hospitals. The new guidelines came in the wake of the Nov. 12 worldwide Day of Action for Ebola Safety by 100,000 registered nurses.

National Nurses United

Conversations with Kay, Part 2

Recently, we started a regular item featuring the life and nursing career stories of Kay McVay, a longtime intensive care unit RN at Kaiser Permanente and president emeritus of the California Nurses Association.

California Nurses Association

A champion of nurses, patients and the people: NNU Endorses Bernie Sanders for President

The 200-plus nurse members had gathered in NNU’s Oakland, Calif. office for a national conversation with Sanders—also broadcast live to thousands of additional RNs in cities from Des Moines and Chicago, to Kansas City and Orlando. Citing Sanders’ track record on supporting Medicare for all, fighting income inequality, working to end systemic racism, and “the same issues that animate nurses”

National Nurses United

NNU's RN & Co-President Deborah Burger talks about NLRB trial against Community Health Systems/CHS

RN and Co-President of National Nurses United Deborah Burger talks about the National Labor Relations Board trial against Tennessee-based Community Health Systems/CHS, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain.

Pattie Lockard, Nurse Talk Radio

Get Ready!—We’re Going to Need Your Help to Save The BRN!

Remember this spring, when we asked for your help in defeating SB 1195 (Sen. Hill) – a bill that threatened the very existence of the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN)?

California Nurses Association

How important is Public Policy and Protective Legislation for Nurses & Patients?

During the last two years alone, nurses represented by California Nurses Association and National Nurses United fought to author and pass state and national legislation that includes Safe RN-to Patient Staffing Ratio’s and California’s Ballot Proposition 61, also known as the Drug Price Relief Act.

Pattie Lockard, Nurse Talk Radio

Jeanne Taverne: Pushing for Healthcare in a Broken System

Having worked as an RN for thirty-four years, Jeanne Taverne is well-acquainted with the struggles her patients face. “Unjust social and economic policies contribute to health inequity,” she says. “I have seen clients coming to our clinics that do not have access to health care because of lack of insurance. These clients need an advocate to help them navigate through the health system.”