National Nurses United

NATIONAL NURSE,™ (USPS publication permit number 0807-560/ISSN 2153-0386 print/ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, May-June 2017 (Volume 113/3) is published by National 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 published five times per year, with combined issues in January-February, March-April, May-June, July-August-September, and October- 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 these are the best of times, these are the worst of times. Do we sound Dickensian enough? Sometimes we do feel like we are time traveling to the past—back to an age before worker and government regulations protected our safe- ty, back to an era where it was okay to openly discriminate against people for the way they looked, the kind of religion they practiced, the people they chose to love. We have to be honest. Things are not great right now for working people. We have a Congress where the majority of lawmakers want to not only roll back the very little progress we've made toward healthcare coverage of the American people, but to cut and slash and take even further. We have corporations either in control or swiftly gaining control of many of our public resources, from the water we drink to our public education system. And way too many of our brothers and sisters of color are seriously in danger of get- ting shot down in the streets for pretty much no reason at all, often by law enforcement, with no repercussions. That's all the bad news. The good news is that people are fed up. And people are organizing like they never have before to win the social, economic, racial, and climate jus- tice that we know the world needs. And we nurses are right in the thick of building and nurturing that movement. National Nurses United had the great honor of organizing the 2017 People's Summit in Chicago this June, where we and our partner organizations brought together all the most progressive movers, shakers, and doers in this country for three days of learning, networking, and planning next action steps. We all agree; it is not enough to resist. We must put forward our vision of the world as it should exist and take concrete action to make that vision real. You can read all about the People's Summit in this issue. Also in this issue, you will find a report of how many of our RN members are fighting the fossil fuel industry in their part of the country. The public often thinks of us solely as "caring angels." Sure, we're caring angels who also know our way around a microscope, an anatomy book, and a peri- odic table of elements! People forget that nurses are scien- tists, experts in human biology, and we know that the fossil fuel industry and its practices will ultimately destroy human health and all other living things if we keep going at the rate we're going. So it's only natural that RNs are at the forefront of efforts to shift away from fossil fuels and toward climate justice. As always, thank you, nurses, for all that you do. Let's see if we can't do more so that the best times are still ahead. Deborah Burger, RN | Jean Ross, RN National Nurses United Co-presidents Letter from the NNU 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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