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 2023 (Volume 119/3) is published by National Nurses United, 155 Grand Avenue, Oak- land, CA 94612-2908. It provides news of or ganizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all regis- tered 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 (win- ter), 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 Kristi Barnes, Rachel Berger, Lucy Diavolo, Amelia Dornbush, Lauren Nielsen, Chuleenan Svetvilas, Martha Wallner PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Choppy Oshiro how's your summer going so far? We four have been busy, busy, busy as we rep- resent National Nurses United and help advocate for nurses across the entire country. Our nurse mem- bers have been extremely active, too, as we stage strikes, rally and protest, bargain contracts, testify and lobby — all on top of our demanding nursing jobs and caring for our families and communities. There's certainly a lot to work on, isn't there? Of course at the top of everyone's mind is staffing. Short-staffing has always been a problem but it seems like it's reached peak levels in the times since Covid has been declared "over." We all know that's because hospitals want to keep getting away with the crisis standards that we all tolerated during the Covid pandemic emergency. They want to staff to the bare bones all the time because it's better for their bottom line. But we know it's not better for our patients and not better for us. That's why short-staffing is the number-one problem all nurses are focused on right now and it's what drives nurses to walk away from working direct-care. The hospitals falsely cry "nursing shortage" as an excuse for their contin- ued bad behavior, but we know better. Read more in this issue for many, many examples of how nurses are fighting back, from lobbying for federal safe staffing legislation to winning arbitrations, like the New York nurses did, for vio- lations of ratios that they won in their contracts. With all our colleagues who have left, we're sure many of you may feel that nursing is at a crossroads. Perhaps you yourself may be reevaluating your career. In these circum- stances, we want to offer you three core affirmations about nursing that we hope will give you strength and guide your activism. Find out what they are in this issue. Amidst all this busyness, we hope you do get a chance to clock some quality rest and relaxation this summer. You certainly deserve it. Nurses, thank you for all you do. Deborah Burger, RN; Nancy Hagans, 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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