National Nurses United

Donna Stern, RN, Massachusetts "We need to have a voice on every level: local, state and national." NNU members and their allies march in support of single-payer Fong Chuu, RN, California "I am looking forward to standardizing nursing practice for the whole country so everyone would have the same nurseto-patient ratios, and we won't be afraid of speaking up." paign, coordinated a major international disaster relief effort, and launched a state-by-state campaign to win free, quality healthcare for every American. The successes signal a new era in nursing, in which RNs flex their collective muscle to transform the healthcare system, not just within individual hospital chains or regions, but nationwide. The strength of that collaboration quickly became clear in January, when a catastrophic earthquake rocked Haiti, killing tens of thousands of that country's residents and toppling hospitals and nursing schools. NNU put out a nationwide call for help and within hours, thousands of nurses had volunteered for an emergency nursing mission to care for earthquake victims. Members of the public responded to NNU's 'Send a Nurse to Haiti' campaign with over tens of thousands of dollars in donations to pay for nurses' travel and supplies. As the official voice of registered nurses in Washington, NNU worked with the White House and international governments JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2010 to arrange transportation for the nurses and ensure their security in the field. legislation in California (left). Having the backing of a NNU's newest members national organization is proving at MountainView Hospital equally important in negotiating in Nevada pose following their contracts that address nurses' unionization victory (top right). day-to-day concerns on the job. As 12,000 nurses in Minnesota's Twin Cities region gear up for collective bargaining with the area's hospitals this spring, they know their fight to protect their pension benefits is part of a larger NNU campaign to ensure a secure retirement for all nurses. The Minnesota nurses will use their NNU ties to research contract language that has proven effective in other areas of the country, and to turn out large numbers of nurses for mass rallies and events, said Minnesota Nurses Association President Linda Hamilton, RN, an NNU vice president. "Our employers will know that they're not only dealing with nurses in the Twin Cities, that this is on a much larger scale." Meanwhile, forming NNU has allowed nurses to speak with a single voice in the most pivotal national conversation since President Obama took office: the debate over how to overhaul the country's healthcare system. As federal lawmakers haggled over the details of a weak healthcare-reform bill, NNU leaders took to the airwaves. They pointed out how the proposed legislation left the power of the insurance companies intact, and urged Congress to close loopholes that would allow insurers to continue denying coverage to sick patients and charging exorbitant premiums. Media outlets that had rarely interviewed nurses on healthcare reform soon began calling. NNU is now building on that momentum to pass 'Medicare-forAll' laws in every state that will ensure universal health coverage, 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 15

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