National Nurses United

NATIONAL NURSE,™ (ISSN 2153-0386 print /ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, June 2015 Volume 111/4 is published by National Nurses United, 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. It pro- vides news of organizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries general coverage and commen tary on matters of nursing prac- tice, community and public health, and healthcare policy. It is published monthly except for combined issues in January and February, April and May, and July and August. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California. POSTMASTER: send address changes to National Nurse, ™ 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. To send a media release or announce- ment, fax (510) 663-0629. National Nurse™ is carried on the NNU website at www.nationalnursesunited.org. For permission to reprint articles, write to Editorial Office. To subscribe, send $40 ($45 foreign) to Subscription Department. Please contact us with your story ideas They can be about practice or manage- ment trends you've observed, or simply something new you've encountered in the profession. They can be about one nurse, unit, or hospital, or about the wider landscape of healthcare policy from an RN's perspective. They can be humorous, or a matter of life and death. If you're a writer and would like to contribute an article, please let us know. You can reach us at nationalnurse@nationalnursesunited.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR RoseAnn DeMoro EDITOR Lucia Hwang GRAPHIC DESIGN Jonathan Wieder COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Charles Idelson CONTRIBUTORS Barb Brady, Gerard Brogan, RN, David Schildmeier, Ann Kettering Sincox PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Choppy Oshiro we are happy and honored to announce that all of you have reelected the three of us, as well as our secretary-trea- surer Martha Kuhl, to contin- ue to lead this amazing, dynamic, and growing organi- zation of registered nurses. Thank you so much for your faith and confidence in us. To us, it signals that National Nurses United is on the right track in building our vision of the strongest, national RN movement possible, guided by our nurses' values of caring, compassion, and community, that can bring humanity back to our healthcare system and help us work toward the social justice necessary to promote true health: living wage jobs, decent housing, healthcare for all, educational opportunities, a clean environment. You can read our thoughts about what NNU has accomplished and where we've still got to go in order to be successful in our mission as patient advocates. Also in this issue is some really exciting news: Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont in May introduced a Robin Hood Tax in the Senate to fund free public college for all students, as well as have plenty of money left over for the other things that we nurses have been talking about since we launched our campaign for a tax on Wall Street four years ago. Sanders' bid for the Democratic presidential nomination makes anything he does pretty high profile, and we are so happy that Sanders is championing the Robin Hood Tax and our movement to tax Wall Street is getting the news coverage and recognition that it deserves. Tell your representatives to get on board! Check the back cover for details. There's lots of other news packed into this issue. Nurses in more than 11 countries around the world, under Global Nurses United, held many different international actions during Nurses Week in May. While employers and govern- ments always pay lip service to how much they value RNs during Nurses Week, they never put their staffing and money where their mouth is! They are always understaffing and cutting, cutting, cutting our resources to take care of our patients. We always use Nurses Week as an opportunity to tell the world what nurses really want: the best health- care we can provide as a guaranteed, human right. This means safe staffing ratios. This means fully funded health- care and public health systems. This means no Trans-Pacif- ic Partnership! We look forward to continuing this struggle with you. Unity! Deborah Burger, RN | Karen Higgins, RN | Jean Ross, RN National Nurses United Council of Presidents Letter from the Council of Presidents Stay connected FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/NationalNurses TWITTER: @RNmagazine, @NationalNurses FLICKR: www.flickr.com/nationalnursesunited YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/NationalNursesUnited DIGITAL MAGAZINE: NationalNurseMagazine.org

• Cover