National Nurses United

NATIONAL NURSE,™ (USPS publication permit number 0806-560/ISSN 2153- 0386 print/ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, May/June 2016 Volume 112/3 is published by Nation- al Nurses United, 155 Grand Avenue, Oak- land, CA 94612-2908. It provides news of or ganizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries gen- eral coverage and commen tary on matters of nursing practice, community and public health, and healthcare policy. It is pub- lished bimonthly, with combined issues in January-February, March-April, May- June, July-August, September-October, and November-December. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California. POSTMASTER: send address changes to National Nurse, ™ 155 Grand Avenue, 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, PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes, Choppy Oshiro, Kate Usher has it happened to you? We bet it has. Because it's happened to each of us countless times. We're talking about being assaulted at work, whether it's actually getting shoved or punched, spat on, or cursed at. Workplace violence has gotten so commonplace for us nurses that far too many of us consid- er it just part of the job. Except that it shouldn't be. And, as we've learned from our Global Nurses United col- leagues, this situation is no different for nurses around the entire world. In this issue, then, our National Nurses United Health and Safety Division offers us a different way of thinking about workplace violence. The causes and solutions are not complicated and actually well documented. We know the risk factors, and what can be done to reduce or eliminate them. You guessed it, the number one thing employers around the world can do to create safer workplaces is to provide appropriate staffing! But, sadly, healthcare around the world is considered a commodity to be bought and sold for profit, so employers simply don't want to spend the money they should to ensure that nurses, other healthcare workers, patients, and, ulti- mately, the public are safe. So nurses must advocate and take action to make sure they and their communities are safe, by bringing our fight to our legislatures, to our bar- gaining tables with employers, and to the streets! We hope you enjoy this in-depth analysis of global work- place violence and what nurses unions around the world are doing to protect themselves and their patients. We wanted to point out a couple of unique human interest stories in this issue, as well. One shares the despair and hope felt by an RN member who survived recent massive floods in West Virginia that wiped out her home and killed 23 people. The other introduces readers to one of our California RN leaders who heeded Bernie Sanders' call to run for elected office and is now on the November ballot for her city council! Also in this issue is news of many, many collective bar- gaining fights, from the huge strike in Minnesota of Allina Health by our brave members there to protect healthcare benefits, to many other actions and, happily, contract settle- ments as well. And we just wanted to congratulate our executive direc- tor, RoseAnn DeMoro, for once again making a prominent healthcare industry publication's ranking of the "Top 100" most influential people in healthcare. Under her and all of our leadership, we NNU nurses are hailed as one of the fiercest forces in healthcare! 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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