Health and Safety
New report: High and rising rates of workplace violence and employer failure to implement effective prevention strategies is contributing to the staffing crisis
NNU's survey results reveal majority of nurses have experienced workplace violence, with nearly half seeing a rise in rates in the past year.
Updates on the CDC Advisory Committee’s efforts to weaken infection control guidance for health care
On January 23, 2024, CDC announced the results of its review of HICPAC’s draft. The CDC is requiring HICPAC to address some of the core issues that NNU has been raising, including the use of respirators vs. surgical masks to protect health care workers from pathogens that transmit through the air.
NNU delivers petition to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
On April 4, 2024, NNU delivered a petition, signed by over 5,600 individuals, urging CDC to ensure all necessary perspectives are added to HICPAC and its workgroup, including frontline health care workers, unions, patients advocates, and other public health experts.
Our campaigns
RN-to-Patient Staffing Ratios
Registered nurses across the United States understand the need to set a minimum number of nurses to safely care for a given number of patients, with adjustments to increase nurse staffing based on patient acuity.
Workplace Violence Prevention
Violence against nurses and other health care workers in hospitals and other health care facilities is a growing epidemic across the United States. Learn more about NNU's national campaign to prevent workplace violence.
Patient Handling
Sprains, strains, and tears, make up 52% of all injuries that result in days away from work for RNs. Unsafe patient handling causes the bulk of these injuries, some of which have ended nurses’ careers. The solution? A safe patient handling program that includes appropriate equipment, education, and training.
Infectious Disease
Covid-19
View all our resources on Covid-19 and protecting nurses and other health care workers and their patients.
Mpox
Learn about mpox, its symptoms, how it is transmitted, and what protections nurses and other health care workers need to care for a patient with a confirmed case.
Measles
Globally, measles cases rose 30-fold in 2023 compared to 2022. Despite its elimination in the United States in 2000, there remains a serious risk of outbreaks. Learn about protections nurses and other health care workers need to care for a patient with suspected or confirmed measles.
Ebola
NNU advocates for nurses to have the education, training, and personal protective equipment they need. Our successes include landmark mandatory Ebola guidelines in California and collective bargaining agreements with strong infectious disease protections.
Latest resources
Measles: What nurses need to know
Globally, measles cases rose 30-fold in 2023 compared to 2022. Despite its elimination in the United States in 2000, there remains a serious risk of outbreaks. Learn about protections nurses and other health care workers need to care for a patient with suspected or confirmed measles.
What Nurses Need to Know: Preventing the Long Covid Health Crisis
A large proportion of people who get Covid-19 experience long-term symptoms and health impacts, known as “long Covid.” Read our flyer to learn about what measures are necessary to protect staff and patients from long Covid.
Ten Things That Nurses Need To Know About Long Covid
Following initial Covid-19 infection, a significant proportion of people continue to experience new, recurring, or ongoing symptoms and health problems that persist from several weeks or months to years.
Nurses’ Guide to Improving Indoor Air Quality in Health Care
This detailed guide provides information about the importance of ventilation, what employers should do to reduce aerosol-transmitted pathogens, and how nurses can identify whether their employers are compliant or not.
Nurse Advocacy Network
The NNU Nurse Advocacy Network is a community of activists who are ready to mobilize to ensure that nurses and other front line health care workers have the protections and safety standards they need to care for patients.
Research and reports
Protecting Our Front Line: Ending the Shortage of Good Nursing Jobs and the Industry-created Unsafe Staffing Crisis
In this report, National Nurses United describes how the hospital industry has driven registered nurses from the profession.
Workplace Violence and Covid-19 in Health Care: How the Hospital Industry Created an Occupational Syndemic
This report details stark evidence of how the dual failures of health care employers to protect nurses and patients from Covid-19 and workplace violence synergistically interact to amplify the harms caused by each individually.
Deadly Shame: Redressing the Devaluation of Registered Nurse Labor Through Pandemic Equity
This white paper provides context and history for why moral distress and moral injury are happening to the most trusted profession in the United States.