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 2024 (Volume 120/2) 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, Amelia Dornbush, Michelle Morris, Chuleenan Svetvilas, Martha Wallner PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Choppy Oshiro the four of us have been registered nurses for quite some time, so we still remember "ye olden days," when we did paper charting and didn't have even one- quarter of the gadgets, gizmos, scanners, and screens that we all deal with on a daily basis now. We know we speak for many of us nurses when we say that oftentimes it feels like we are spending more time staring at monitors and devices than looking at our patients, and seri- ously wonder whether we are practicing the kind of nursing we got into this profession for. Don't get us wrong. We're not against technology. None of us want to be manually autoclaving our own instruments anymore. But we always have to be vigilant about technol- ogy that enhances our nursing practice versus technology that supplants, undermines, fragments, or deskills our practice. Having to rely on our own senses and critical thinking in the early decades of our practice meant that we developed much greater confidence in our own assessment skills, an asset that has served us all in good stead as medi- cine and technology continues to evolve. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of technology intro- duced into our workplaces and into our practice by our employers have little to do with supporting us. They were largely about billing, about routinizing the work and under- mining our professional judgment, about standardizing care, and ultimately about cutting as many nurses as possi- ble to maximize profits for the corporation. Today, we have entered the brave new world of artificial intelligence, and it is posing an existential threat to the pro- fession. As you can read about in this issue of the magazine, our workplaces are rushing to implement A.I. in all facets of our practice, whether inpatient or clinic, when none of these programs are proven to be safe nor effective. We nurses are now doing what we do best: advocating for our patients and ourselves by standing up and pushing back. We will fight against the inappropriate use of A.I. technol- ogy in our facilities and fight at the state and federal levels for policy and legislation to regulate these products. Please take a moment to read this important story and get involved. And, of course, the work of the union never stops. In this issue you can also read all about the historic first contracts we have won and many of the other strikes and battles we have waged this spring. In solidarity, 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: @NationalNurses FLICKR: www.flickr.com/nationalnursesunited VIMEO: www.vimeo.com/NationalNursesUnited DIGITAL MAGAZINE: NationalNurseMagazine.org

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