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, Jannuary-Febru- ary 2018 (Volume 114/1) is published 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 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 change is hard. Change can be scary. Change brings in the unknown. But change is necessary for growth. Change is learning. Change is a natural part of life. In the past months here at National Nurses United, we have been experiencing big changes! First, we mourned the passing of one of our truly great and historic nurse leaders, Kay McVay, president emeritus of the California Nurses Association. Kay was relentless in fighting for nurses, fighting for patients, fighting for everyday working people, and fighting for the profession, which she loved with all her heart. CNA was her family, and she was our matriarch. We will miss her deeply but know that she lives on in every aspect of this organization and the modern nurses' movement. You can read more about her life in this issue. Next, we reluctantly bid farewell to RoseAnn DeMoro as she embarked on a well-deserved retirement after 32 years of service as executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee and eight years as founding executive director of National Nurs- es United. Anyone who has spent any appreciable amount of time with RoseAnn knows that she has a favorite saying: "Great leaders aren't born, they are cornered." Well, we're sorry, but we're going to have to dispute that in RoseAnn's case. The woman is a natural-born leader. We are beyond grateful that she recognizes, understands, and values the importance of nursing, and that she has chosen to spend her career helping us nurses build our power, respect, and the financial securities of our families. She is truly remark- able, and we will miss her terribly. You can read more about her tenure at CNA/NNOC and NNU in this issue as well. But one of RoseAnn's most valuable legacies is the strength of the organizations she helped build. NNU is solid. CNA/ NNOC is solid. The union and the movement exist beyond her. She has mentored and the NNU and CNA/NNOC boards of directors have named registered nurse Bonnie Castillo, to suc- ceed her as executive director. Bonnie is beyond qualified and up to the task, having practiced as an ICU RN, organized her own hospital, and then excelled in a variety of top-level posi- tions here on staff. We have full faith in Bonnie and trust that she will continue to lead the work of the organization as it enters its next era. We would be remiss if we did not discuss some of the other important content of this issue. If there's one story you must read, it is the one describing the experiences of advice nurses who work for Kaiser Permanente's call centers. The juggernaut that is Kaiser has grand plans to deal with all of us patients vir- tually, and the call centers give us just a taste of what to expect. The times, they are a changin'. Deborah Burger, RN | Jean Ross, RN National Nurses United Copresidents Letter from the NNU presidents Stay connected FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/NationalNurses TWITTER: @RNmagazine, @NationalNurses FLICKR: www.flickr.com/nationalnursesunited VIMEO: www.vimeo.com/NationalNursesUnited DIGITAL MAGAZINE: NationalNurseMagazine.org

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