National Nurses United

TOC_Layout 1 6/30/11 1:56 PM Page 2 Letter from the Council of Presidents it's been a wild month! By now, we hope most of you are familiar with our Main Street Contract for the American people campaign. It's really a nobrainer to understand: Our economy has gotten so out of whack, tilted in favor of the wealthy and big corporations, that our country needs to reprioritize the needs of regular, working Americans: living wage jobs, good educational opportunities, guaranteed healthcare, a clean environment, a decent retirement, housing, enough food to eat. The necessities. One start would be to make Wall Street pay for all the damage it's done to the economy by levying a small tax on every stock market and similar financial transaction in this country. We could raise up to $350 billion to reinvest in our social infrastructure. We kicked off our campaign at our 2011 Staff Nurse Assembly held in early June in Washington, D.C. It's always great when nurses get together, but this year's gathering was the biggest and best ever! More than 800 nurses attended, and nearly 1,000 of us rallied in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to promote our Main Street Contract. Everybody shared stories from their own lives, their neighborhoods, and about their patients to illustrate why we need a Main Street Contract. So many people are suffering needlessly; we could hardly keep from crying at times. All of us left reenergized, educated, and ready to go back to our workplaces and communities to talk about the contract and how nurses can organize people to win these basic provisions. Check out coverage of the Staff Nurse Assembly in this month's news section. NATIONAL NURSE,™ (ISSN 2153-0386 print/ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, June 2011 Volume 107/5 is published by National Nurses United, 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. It provides news of organizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries general coverage and commentary on matters of nursing practice, community and public health, and healthcare policy. It is published monthly except for We immediately followed up the assembly with a massive march on New York City's Wall Street on June 22 to promote the transaction tax and the Main Street Contract. What a scene! We put those wheeler dealers on notice with thousands of nurses in red scrubs waving signs reading "Heal America, tax Wall Street." Our June 22 protest was part of an International Day of Action called by the European Trade Union Confederation for a similar tax in Europe. Many tourists, including some nurses from France and Australia, stopped to tell us they were so glad to hear our message. It's high time all corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share. But a nurse's work is never done, right? Meanwhile, all of us are still fighting corporate healthcare back at home and this issue's feature story about how hospitals are running around cutting units it no longer wants to operate exemplifies that struggle. So many units are on the chopping block that many hospitals no longer seem like hospitals to us. Some of the most popular units to cut include inpatient psych, rehab, skilled nursing, labor and delivery, hospice, home health, and even pediatrics! Read the story for more details. We urge all of you to take a moment to learn about the Main Street Contract campaign. You can read stories and find out more information through our website page devoted to the campaign at www.nationalnursesunited.org/ affiliates/entry/msc1. This is not something for just those nurses who are already very active or "have the time." If you have children or grandchildren, if you care about their future and your own future once you are no longer able to work, you need to be out there on the streets with us. See you there. Deborah Burger, RN | Karen Higgins, RN | Jean Ross, RN National Nurses United Council of Presidents combined issues in January and February, and July and August. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California. POSTMASTER: send address changes to National Nurse, 2000 ™ Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. To send a media release or announcement, 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 management 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 RoseAnn DeMoro EDITOR Lucia Hwang GRAPHIC DESIGN Jonathan Wieder COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Charles Idelson CONTRIBUTORS Gerard Brogan, RN, Hedy Dumpel, RN, JD, Jan Rabbers, Donna Smith, David Schildmeier, Ann Kettering Sincox PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Lauren Reid

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