National Nurses United

6 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N O V E M B E R | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 NATIONAL C alifornia nurses Association/ National Nurses Organizing Committee registered nurses seized the opportunity during their Staff Nurse Assemblies this winter to stage major actions on two critical issues near and dear to activist RNs' hearts: the current student debt crisis and global climate change crisis. In addition to the protests, they had the chance to network with RN colleagues, dig more deeply through continuing education courses into a number of topics—from tech- nology to global financial institutions—that influence public health and their nursing practice, and strategize about how to elect Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016 so that our pres- ident and government policies can start to better reflect the values of caring, compas- sion, and community that nurses champion. "I'm a registered nurse and our planet is my patient, and it is on life support," said Malinda Markowitz, RN and a CNA/NNOC copresident and vice-president of National Nurses United, to a crowd of 1,200 nurses and environmental and healthcare activists gathered in downtown Los Angeles' Persh- ing Square on Dec. 3 for a major climate change rally held as part of CNA/NNOC's Southern California assembly. The action was also timed to coincide with the United Nation's Conference on Climate Change in Paris, where world leaders were attempting to negotiate a global climate treaty. Nurses demanded that countries adopt a binding and enforceable climate treaty, commit resources to fund the trans- formation to clean, renewable energy includ- ing a just transition program for those who now work in the fossil fuel industry, and call on wealthy, developed countries to provide resources for the less-developed countries to act on climate, with funding coming from a carbon tax and the Robin Hood tax. "As nurses, we see the health consequences from the effects of pollution created by fossil fuels," said Markowitz. "We deal with the human fallout of climate injustice. Enough is enough. As nurses we know we must respond by giving care and by protest, protest, protest! We will never stop protesting." Rachel Hernandez-Brown, a pediatric RN in Bakersfield which, as a city in Califor- nia's Central Valley, experiences some of the worst air pollution in the state, shared her stories and thoughts about how fossil fuel pollution harms her young patients. She con - stantly sees children coming in who strug gle to breathe and suffer from respiratory distress. RNs educate, organize, agitate at Staff Nurse Assemblies NEWS BRIEFS

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