National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_June REV 2 6/30/11 12:44 PM Page 4 NEWS BRIEFS of the NNU Council of Presidents, to the assembled delegates. Much of the conference was devoted to sharing stories about why the country needs a Main Street Contract, what that contract entails, and how nurses can lead the way to winning these basic securities. Nurses spoke eloquently about the economic hardships they are enduring in their own households, in their neighborhoods, and that they are seeing among their patients. Nurses assessed how prolonged economic hardship is linked to broad declines in health and living standards for substantial segments of our population. Low wages and unemployment, hunger, substandard housing and education (including fewer opportunities for children to exercise), less access to healthcare, and other factors of serious economic distress, were cited by RNs as the reasons communities across the nation are quickly dying, literally. Among the health conditions nurses identified as connected to the depressed economy are stress-induced heart ailments in younger NNU Nurses Go to Washington NATIONAL his economy is killing us, and America's registered nurses are determined to stop the bleeding and start the healing. That was the main theme of National Nurses United's 2011 Staff Nurse Assembly, a three-day conference held in Washington, D.C. which drew more than 800 RNs from across the country. At the top of the nurses' agenda was T 4 N AT I O N A L N U R S E discussion and education about the Main Street Contract for the American People, a campaign that NNU is launching to reverse national priorities and policies that have concentrated wealth in the hands of corporations and the super rich, while many working people suffer without adequate healthcare, enough food, or even a roof over their heads. "In order to protect your patients, you are going to have to come out and talk about what's really going on in this country," said Jean Ross, a Minnesota RN and a member 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 patients, especially in men in their 40s; hypertension for all ages, including children; pancreatitis among non-drinkers, children included; a range of "gut" disorders, such as colitis; increased obesity linked to poverty; and manifold mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, in young people. Also, asthma conditions for children are worse as a result of postponing treatments, with reports surfacing of deaths as a result of the delays tied to poverty or insurance obstacles.  Deborah Burger, a California RN and also an NNU Council of Presidents member, JUNE 2011

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