National Nurses United

A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 1 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 11 N urses week was May 6–12, and while our employers called us "heroes" and gave us pizza parties and keychains with the hospital logo (Some Kaiser Permanente nurses in California were even given rocks!), families across the country are grappling with an empty seat at the dinner table and an alternate future stretching out in front of them. Patients and registered nurse colleagues are feeling the loss of a skilled healer, whose compassion and dedication saved lives. To date, more than 400 registered nurses have lost their lives on the front lines of Covid. And we believe this number is just the tip of the iceberg, as we ourselves have had to do the painstaking work of identifying nurses who have died, since there is no federal govern- ment repository to keep track of this data. You can read more about the children of our fallen nurses on page 18. Mothers Day 2021 fell in the middle of Nurses Week, and for those who lost an RN mom, it was a day of mourning and reflection. Nurses did not sign up to sacrifice our lives or to leave our children without a parent. The grief we feel at the loss of our colleagues is tremendous—and yes, the anger. Because it didn't have to be this way. Praise from our employers during Nurses Week is empty, and even insulting, without the workplace protections nurses need just to stay alive and keep our patients and fami- lies safe. In National Nurses United's February survey of RNs across the country, more than 81 percent said they still didn't have the personal protective equipment (PPE) they needed to do their job safely. If our employers truly appreciated us, they would protect us. And when they don't, they must be held accountable. Since day one of the pandemic, National Nurses United has called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an emergency temporary standard (ETS) on infectious diseases. This ETS would mandate that our employers give us the strongest level of protections for Covid-19 and future pandemics. We need that national, enforceable standard so that we can stay healthy, safe, and alive to care for our patients. On May 12, the final day of Nurses Week (also International Nurses Day), NNU nurses gathered in Washington, D.C. in front of the White House to lay out more than 400 pairs of empty shoes, representing the nurses who lost their lives on the front lines of Covid. That evening, we also held an online vigil and several in-person car vigils across the country for our fallen colleagues, whose names were projected onto the AFL- CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. We will never forget that if we had an OSHA standard a year ago, many of these nurses might still be alive today. Nurses have given more than enough. We didn't hesitate, even when faced with the deadliest pandemic in a century, to do our jobs. When our patients needed us, we ran straight into the heart of disaster to care for them. It's long past time that our employers, elected officials, and the agencies in charge of public health care for us in return. NNU nurses have held more than 2,000 actions since the start of Covid, calling for optimal protections. We will keep standing up and speaking out until we get them. Registered nurses shouldn't be looking back on more than a year of unanswered demands. From now on, our employers can spare us their false Nurses Week compliments and instead give us lifesaving protections, mandated by this desperately needed OSHA emergency temporary standard. There is nothing more meaningful to nurses than to know we can come home to our loved ones. That's what we really wanted for Nurses Week. Bonnie Castillo, RN is executive director of National Nurses United. Bonnie Castillo, RN Executive Director, National Nurses United 400 Reasons Why Praise during Nurses Week is empty without protections Employers can spare us their false Nurses Week compliments and instead give us lifesaving protections, mandated by this desperately needed OSHA emergency temporary standard.

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