National Nurses United

NewsBriefs. Sept 2006 9/1/06 12:13 PM Page 4 NewsBriefs RN Disaster Response Network Launches ne year after Hurricane Katrina exposed that neither government nor private relief agencies were prepared to dispatch volunteer registered nurses to help in a disaster, CNA/NNOC announced in August that it is filling that void by building a network of RNs ready to respond to national emergencies, and by raising money to fund relief efforts. CNA/NNOC is mailing more than 2 million RNs across the country, asking them to sign up with its RN Response Network, also called RNRN, so that a national database of nurses with contact information and their specialty areas will be waiting when the next disaster strikes. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina last September, CNA/NNOC organized in just a few days from scratch an emergency volunteer RN program, ultimately sending 300 nurses to more than 25 locations in three states. One public hospital whose patient load more than O doubled overnight depended on CNA/NNOC volunteers for half of its nursing staff for two months after the hurricane. Though the RN volunteers were able to provide medical care to thousands of evacuees, everyone realized that the work involved in sending nurses was so intensive that the program needed to be formalized. Not only must local needs be identified, but legwork has to be done to place the right volunteers with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, with the right resources. With the RN Response Network, CNA/NNOC can now embark on the planning, outreach, coordination, logistics, and fund-raising needed to place RN volunteers efficiently and effectively. "Katrina was a natural disaster that required immediate response," said Bonnie Martin, NP and CNA/NNOC board member who volunteered at a small Louisiana hospital right on the Gulf Coast. "But the national NATIONAL 4 REGISTERED NURSE W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G tragedy was finding out that our federal government was virtually catatonic. Unable to move." RNRN has already received its first request for volunteers. Founders of the Lower 9th Ward Clinic, a free medical clinic that just opened August 28 in one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods of New Orleans, have asked for RNRN's help in staffing the facility with volunteer nurse practitioners. "The medical system in this city is still crippled and dysfunctional," said Alice Craft-Kerney, an RN and New Orleans native who had been working at Charity Hospital and helped establish the clinic with another RN, Patricia Berryhill. "Like for OB/GYN services, there are none. You have to drive 65 miles out to Houma. And just the other day, I was walking this neighborhood and ran into two young ladies, one was three months pregnant and the other six months pregnant. They had gotten no prenatal care, been taking no prenatal vitamins. You know, prior to Katrina, we had a lot of disparities in health care. Post Katrina, it's been compounded." RNs who had volunteered after Katrina were excited and heartened by news of the RN Response Network. "For every one of us that went, there were hundreds that would have gone if there were the resources," said Sharon Bernard, a labor and delivery RN in Burlingame, Calif., who also volunteered. "So I'm glad you're continuing this program." —staff report Want to Help? You can visit the RNRN website at www.RNResponseNetwork.org to: JOIN RNRN. We can't call you to help if we can't reach you. Get plugged into our database now. DONATE. Feeding, flying, and housing volunteers requires funds. Please contribute. TELL A FRIEND. We need all the help we can get. SEPTEMBER 2006

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