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, April- May-June 2022 (Volume 118/2) 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, California. 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, Lucy Diavolo, Charles Idelson, Dawn Kettinger, Chuleenan Svetvilas PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Choppy Oshiro in these notes to you, we generally try to put our finger on the pulse of life to gauge where things are at with our union, with our profession, with our patients, with society, our country, our world. Where do we begin? It is a very, very bleak time right now in the United States. The last few months have been marked by horrifying attacks on everyone's fundamental human right to be safe and to control our own bodies. The deadly Tops supermarket, Uvalde elementary school, and Tulsa medical office shootings this spring underscored what we nurses have known for years: Gun violence is a major public health crisis in this country. When you can't even go grocery shopping or attend school without fear of getting killed, something is very wrong. Public policies need to change. We can take one simple commonsense step by banning the sales of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition. You can read about National Nurses United's response to these events in this issue, including the reaction of some of our Buffalo Veter- ans Health Administration nurses who grew up, live, and work in Buffalo, N.Y. Then came another deadly attack, but this took the form of a U.S. Supreme Court decision to obliterate nearly 50 years of reproductive rights by overturning the constitu- tional right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. Many of us anticipated this decision, but it was still devas- tating. As a union representing a profession of predominantly women and as health care providers our- selves, we understand that abortion is a basic, essential health care service. Denying patients control over their own bodies and health care decisions violates our nursing ethics and will harm our patients and their families. As patient advocates, we won't stop until we restore this right and win reproductive and gender justice in our country. This spring and summer have also been full of strikes and contract settlements across the country. The main fight is the same and has not changed: safe staffing. We are proud of our nurses for standing up to their employers and for everything they have achieved. And we are all still doing this against the backdrop of Covid, which is still raging strong in its latest form as the BA.5 variant. So this is a dark time, but we fight on. That is what we union nurses do. Because we are carers, thinkers, survivors. We do what's right because it's the right thing to do. 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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