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, October-Novem- ber-December 2017 (Volume 113/5) is pub- lished by National Nurses United, 155 Grand Avenue, Oakland, 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 general coverage and commen - tary on matters of nursing practice, commu- nity 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-Sep- tember, 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 it's always exhilarating and exhausting to look back over the year's fights, accomplish- ments, setbacks, and epipha- nies. And 2017 sure was a memorable one. We think it's pretty clear that 2017 could be called The Year of Single Payer, Medicare for All. Given the GOP Con- gress' multiple attempts to repeal Obamacare and thereby cut off thousands of Americans from access to health cover- age, the idea of our government providing healthcare, not insurance, as a right of being a resident is now firmly main- stream and part of the public consciousness. At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced his Medicare for All Act of 2017, S. 1804, and at the state level, nurses and allies in California organized like hell to move S.B. 562, a bill that would create a single-payer system for the world's sixth- largest economy. Make no mistake, the people want single payer, and we are on the right side of history on this one. This year will also be noted as the year of not-so-natural disasters, seeing not just one, but three devastating hurri- canes hitting the United States, and dozens of frighteningly large and fast wildfires erupting across the West. Harvey flooded much of Houston, and Maria turned Puerto Rico into an undeveloped nation, with no reliable clean water, electricity, shelter, or food. Still, about half of Puerto Rico has no power. Huge wildfires in Northern and Southern California set records for being the most destructive in the state's history. Nurses know these are not random events; they are the results of climate disruption and what our com- munities and world can expect to experience more of if we do not abandon our fossil fuel economy toward a sustain- able one based on sun, wind, and water. Increasingly, nurs- es are active and outspoken on our environment because we recognize that climate change is a public health issue. Finally, 2017 is the year that people got mad and were willing to do something about it. We don't think anybody, even those who voted for him, could have anticipated the regressive decisions that President Donald Trump would make during his first year in office. As was clear during this year's People's Summit and at numerous gatherings of National Nurses United RNs this year, we are united and committed to organizing and fighting any condition that runs contrary to our nurses' values of caring, compassion, and community. We have a lot of work heading into 2018. Won't you join us? 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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