National Nurses United

NATIONAL NURSE,™ (USPS publication permit number 0807-560/ISSN 2153- 0386 print/ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, July- August-September 2019 (Volume 115/3) is published by National Nurses United, 155 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. It provides news of or ganizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries general coverage and commen - tary on matters of nursing practice, community and public health, and health- care policy. It is published quarterly, with combined issues in January-February- March (winter), April-May-June (spring), July-August-September (summer), and October-November-December (fall). Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, Cal- ifornia. POSTMASTER: send address changes to National Nurse, ™ 155 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. To send a media release or announce- ment, fax (510) 663-0629. National Nurse™ is carried on the NNU website at www.nationalnursesunited.org. For permission to reprint articles, write to Editorial Office. To subscribe, send $40 ($45 foreign) to Subscription Department. Please contact us with your story ideas They can be about practice or manage- ment trends you've observed, or simply something new you've encountered in the profession. They can be about one nurse, unit, or hospital, or about the wider landscape of healthcare policy from an RN's perspective. They can be humorous, or a matter of life and death. If you're a writer and would like to contribute an article, please let us know. You can reach us at nationalnurse@nationalnursesunited.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR Bonnie Castillo, RN EDITOR Lucia Hwang GRAPHIC DESIGN Jonathan Wieder COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Sarah Cecile CONTRIBUTORS Rachel Berger, Barbara Brady, Kari Jones, Chuleenan Svetvilas, Martha Wallner PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Sarah Maple, Choppy Oshiro one of our nurse leaders, California Nurses Associa- tion/National Nurses Organizing Committee Presi- dent Cokie Giles, an RN from Maine, experienced a very bit- tersweet moment at the 2019 Global Nurses Solidarity Assembly in September. Cokie was up on stage, giving a pres- entation as part of a Medicare for All panel, and told the story of her now-grown son, Matthew, who has been insulin dependent since age 11. Without the protection of guaran- teed health care under Medicare for All, Matthew has struggled over the course of his life to get the care he needs, and has had part of his foot amputated. The next day, Cokie met Annie Butler, RN and federal secretary of the Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federa- tion. Like Cokie, Annie has a child who is insulin dependent, but because they live in Australia, which pro- vides health care to all its residents, Annie's daughter has never wanted nor worried for diabetes care—or how to pay for it. Today, Annie's daughter is a mom to two healthy kids of her own. When Annie had heard Cokie's story about Matthew the previous day, she was stunned and pained almost to tears because it hit so close to home and Matthew's suffering was unnecessary. "In Australia, care is based on clinical need, not on ability to pay," said Butler. Hearing Annie's story just galvanized Cokie to fight harder to win Medicare for All in the United States. "It doesn't have to be this way," said Giles. "Other countries with fewer resources have for generations adopted a Medicare for All system to take care of their people. We can, too." This meeting and exchange of ideas, of compassion, of energy between these two nurses is just one of thousands of connections nurses and their allies forged during the assembly, which included 1,500 attendees from across the United States and 25 countries. Nurses learned more about the current geopolitical, economic, social, and climate forces making our mission to care for patients harder, allowing us to understand our profession's common fight. As we say, "An injury to one is an injury to all" and that mes- sage could not have been louder or clearer during this year's assembly. You can read more about the event in this issue. And, as always, there is coverage about all the rest of the good work National Nurses United members do. We're organizing new nurses, winning contracts, protesting, responding to disasters, and holding the health care indus- try accountable, on the daily. A nurse's work is never done. Thank you for all that you do, and here's to taking on more! Deborah Burger, RN | Jean Ross, RN | Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN National Nurses United Presidents Letter from the NNU presidents Stay connected FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/NationalNurses TWITTER: @RNmagazine, @NationalNurses FLICKR: www.flickr.com/nationalnursesunited VIMEO: www.vimeo.com/NationalNursesUnited DIGITAL MAGAZINE: NationalNurseMagazine.org

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