SNA 2010_5 Page 6/23/10 7:26 PM Page 15
A Vision Realized
At National Nurses United's RN Heroes conference, a movement came into its own.
s texas rn miriam flores looked around at the
banquet hall packed with over 1,000 nurses from
around the country, the red-lit, star-spangled stage
and the podium where AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka was addressing the crowd, she
had just one wish: that all of her coworkers in
El Paso, who had been struggling to win collective-bargaining representation in one of
the most anti-union states in the nation, could be there to witness
the scene.
"It's overwhelming, the support we feel here," Flores said. "I wish
they could see how united people can be."
United, indeed. National Nurses United's first annual staff nurse
assembly illustrated the broad reach of the new organization…and the
power that an active, organized union of professional patient advocates
M AY 2 0 1 0
can command. An overflow crowd of nurses poured in from nearly every
state in the country for the three-day event of panels, continuing education classes, and rallies. The RNs had come to Washington, D.C. in part to
lobby for legislation to improve patient care nationwide, and the steady
stream of members of Congress and other elected officials stopping by the
conference to meet with the nurses made clear that NNU had arrived.
"This is the vision I had since I started in nursing 40 years ago,"
Sandra Falwell, RN, past president of the District of Columbia Nurses Association and an NNU vice president, told the crowd at the
conference's opening plenary session. "We are about to become the
biggest movers and shakers you've ever seen."
With registered nurses now unified in a national organization,
they have tremendous authority and responsibility to influence the
country's health policy, NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN, told
the assembled nurses.
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
N AT I O N A L N U R S E
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