NewsBriefs.2:Sept
9/30/08
1:38 PM
Page 11
including Commissioner Peter Lawson
Jones, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson,
State Reps. Mike Foley and Mike Skindell, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich
and his brother Gary, who is running for
state representative.
In Long Beach, Calif., a record number
of CNA/NNOC RNs turned out to participate in the parade at the harbor. Nurses
from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Citrus Valley Medical Center, and San
Gabriel Valley Medical Center handed out
single-payer brochures and convinced
many other unions to carry CNA/NNOC
single-payer signs. —staff report
SEPTEMBER 2008
Cook County Nurses Fight
On to Save Public Health
ILLINOIS
n august, abc's 20/20 reported on
enduring high infant mortality rates in
poor African-American communities in
Tennessee. The piece underscored the consensus among public health experts: home
visits by trained nurses are the best, most
cost-effective form of intervention for highrisk pregnancies and births.
Cook County, facing an identical infant
mortality crisis, has actually supported just
I
W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G
such a program for years. The county's public health nurses visit some 21,500 at-risk
pregnant women and infants per year.
While the program, like the rest of the
county health bureau, has long suffered
from chronic nurse understaffing, it has
played a vital role in preventive pre- and
post-natal care.
Cook County nurses were therefore
floored to discover in early July that the
county was eliminating this program. The
director of public health claimed that March
REGISTERED NURSE
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