National Nurses United

SNA 2010_5 Page 6/23/10 7:27 PM Page 17 es working to unionize. "We will show them what it means when we say 'Don't Mess With Texas RNs,'" Sanchez told the crowd. El Paso—where two weeks later, nurses at two hospitals would vote overwhelmingly for NNU representation—is just one stop on a larger NNU organizing drive at hospitals in several states owned by HCA, the nation's largest hospital corporation. "We're starting with Texas, then Florida, and rolling across the country," said Malinda Markowitz, RN, an HCA nurse and NNU vice president. "We're going to get every nurse that's not organized and bring them into NNU." Lobbying on Capitol Hill legislative advocacy was a key part of the conference, which coincided with National Nurses Week. At a midday rally in Upper Senate Park, throngs of nurses in red scrubs turned out to support three bills in Congress: S. 1031/H.R. 2133, which would mandate minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in acute care settings; S. 1788/H.R. 2381, to establish safe patient lifting policies, and S. 362/H.R. 949, which would restore collective bargaining rights for nurses in Veterans Affairs hospitals. Carrying signs reading 'I'm a Patient Advocate' and chanting "We are the nurses nation," RNs heard from legislators including Senator Barbara Boxer, author of the ratios bill. "Too often you are overworked because of staffing levels that are inadequate, and that is unacceptable," said Boxer. "We know that Among those who nurse-to-patient spoke at National ratios work, and it is Nurses United's RN time to enact them Heroes Conference around the nation." were (left to right) Senator Al NNU Executive Franken, author of Director Rose Ann the safe lift legislaDeMoro, Senator Al tion, called nurses Franken (D-MN), Rep"tireless advocates resentative Barbara for the country's Lee (D-CA), Senator well-being." Barbara Boxer (D-CA), "You're the ones and AFL-CIO President we trust to care for Richard Trumka. M AY 2 0 1 0 our loved ones, and it's simply unacceptable that you're putting your health on the line to care for patients," Franken said. "One injured nurse is one too many." Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis also spoke to the nurses earlier in the conference and pledged her support for the safe lift bill, which aims to reduce patient and nurse injuries and promote retention of experienced RNs by requiring hospitals to provide lift equipment. More than 36,000 healthcare workers were injured in 2008 from lifting and transferring patients, and 12 percent of nurses plan to leave the profession in part because of a back injury, Solis said. "What a waste when the career of an experienced nurse is ended years or decades too early because of an easily preventable back injury," she said. After the rally, nurses filed into the Capitol to talk to their legislators about the bills. Stephanie Stevens, a 40-year nurse from Plymouth, Mass., joined other RNs from her state in the office of Senator John Kerry. Stevens, whose husband served in the Navy with Kerry, was apprehensive but looking forward to speaking out on the need for safe staffing in her hospital. As the RNs gathered with one of the Senator's aides around a long wooden table, next to a bronze bust of John F. Kennedy, Stevens summoned up the courage to talk. Staffing at her hospital used to be sufficient and both nurses and patients were satisfied, she said. Then management reduced the number of RNs. "We now have the dubious honor of the most serious reported events in the state of Massachusetts," she said. "Most of them are directly related to inadequate staffing." "The law limits the amount of well children that can by cared for 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 17

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