National Nurses United

NewsBriefs 6/11/06 8:28 AM Page 5 d Momentum NNOC's Chief Director of Nursing Practice and Patient Advocacy. The assembly allowed registered nurses throughout CNA/NNOC to meet one another and share stories about their struggles and politicization. Dorothy Ahmad, a coronary intensive care unit RN with the Cook County Bureau of Health Services in Chicago, Ill., said that hearing about the experiences of nonunionized nurses in other states reinforced her appreciation for unions and the need for a nationwide union of RNs. "Meeting other nurses, finding out what's happening at their hospitals, I learned that nurses all over, we're basically the same," said Ahmad. "We have problems with getting respect and fair wages. We need a strong, strong system, such as a union, that will go to bat for us. Without unions, we're really treated bad. To think of all the nurses in the U.S. belonging to one union and speaking with one voice, just the thought of it is a beautiful feeling to me. And when nurses are treated fairly and enjoy their work, the end result is good patient care." —staff report JUNE 2006 OHIO MEMBERS SEEK RN ADVOCACY LANGUAGE The proposed change in Ohio Administrative ithin a week of CNA/NNOC's conference, Code would explicitly state that "Registered NursCleveland-area registered nurses testified es have the...right to act as patient advocates, May 18 before the Ohio Board of Nursing as circumstances require, by initiating actions on the need for RN-to-patient ratios and strengthto improve health or to change ening the state's legislative landecisions or activities which in guage about patient advocacy. [OHIO] the professional judgment of the "I know my patients and care registered nurse are against the interest and very much about their well-being," Robin Graber, wishes of the patient, or by giving the patient RN told the board. "Something has to change, the opportunity to make informed decisions about for the sake of our patients, our profession, and healthcare before it is provided. Registered ourselves." Nurses must always act in the exclusive interest Nurses at the OBN meeting said they had been of the patient." forced to work in conditions that put patients at CNA/NNOC organizers said they plan to use risk, and Ohio nurses have been punished for similar language when they make their case to speaking out about dangerously low staffing, other state boards this year. —M.E. unsafe floating, and mandatory overtime. W W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G REGISTERED NURSE 5

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