National Nurses United

NATIONAL NURSE,™ (ISSN 2153-0386 print /ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, July | August 2015 Volume 111/5 is pub- lished by National Nurses United, 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612- 2908. It provides news of organizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries general cover- age and commen tary on matters of nurs- ing practice, community and public health, and healthcare policy. It is pub- lished 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 you know how there's that ex - pression "a summer to re mem - ber"? Well the summer of 2015 has surely been one of those. First, more than 1,200 nurses at Kaiser Permanente's flagship hospital in Southern California, at Los Angeles Medical Center, voted in a landslide election to join the California Nurses Asso- ciation/National Nurses United in late July. It was a hard-won victory for the nurses there, who had suffered for years under the non-existent leadership of another nurses union. They finally had the chance to break free and be reunited with the 19,000 RNs and NPs across Northern and Central California already represented CNA/NNU, and they grabbed it. Be sure to check out their priceless photos in this issue and on CNA's Flickr photo site. Right on the heels of that win, NNU nurses and healthcare allies threw more than 25 parties in cities across the country in celebration of Medicare's 50th birthday on July 30. From Cali- fornia to Texas to Maine, people turned out to honor and give thanks to one of the most successful federal programs of all time. But our work on Medicare is not done. With so many people still unable to access healthcare through private insur- ance, the Affordable Care Act, or Medicaid, the theme of the day was "PIE," which stood for protecting, improving, and expanding Medicare. An essay in this issue by Donna Smith, a Medicare for all advocate in Colorado who used to work for NNU and was featured in Michael Moore's documentary SiCKO, really underscores that point. In her article, Donna shares her most recent health scare and how she can't wait to turn 65 so that she qualifies for Medicare. Expanding Medicare for all has been, and continues to be, one of the cen- tral campaigns of National Nurses United RNs. Lastly, many NNU nurses across the country developed a serious case of fever this summer. Declaring their commitment to #FeelTheBern and never Bern out, nurses joined right in with the huge grassroots movement of people Berning up the political landscape for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Sorry, sorry. We couldn't help ourselves. National Nurses Unit- ed could not be more proud and excited to say that we have endorsed Sen. Sanders for president. We made our announce- ment on Aug. 10 at NNU headquarters before hundreds of nurses, and Sanders appeared in person to accept the endorse- ment and talk with us about his plans for moving toward a more socially, economically, and racially just America. His vision and our vision as nurses could not align more perfectly. Also in this issue, don't miss our annual book reviews, our conversations with Kay, and all the other news from around the country. We hope you have had a fun, relaxing, and safe summer so far and are well rested for all the work that's ahead! 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

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