Press Release

#BernieBus and RNs share with fellow Iowa RNs what it means to “Vote nurses’ values”


Nurses to visit hospital, sign up colleagues to caucus
for Bernie, and also join in #Fightfor15 rally

 
With just four days until the Iowa caucus, registered nurses on National Nurses United’s #BernieBus will make their own visiting hours Thursday as they stop in at Methodist Health System’s Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to discuss with nurse colleagues why a vote for Bernie Sanders is a vote for all the values nurses hold closest to their hearts. Nurses will discuss with fellow nurses why they should caucus and vote for Bernie Sanders, how to do so, and sign up commitments to caucus on Monday.
 
Nurses understand that inequities in socioeconomic factors such as wages, secure and decent housing, reliable healthcare access, educational opportunities, environmental justice, and more, underpin their patient’s health. Sen. Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate that aligns with nurses on all of the issues they care about most.
 
“I am on the bus to share with others what I and my coworkers see everyday,” said Kris Dixon, a Des Moines-area emergency room nurse who said that she and coworkers often receive patients who delay or forgo needed medical care because they can’t afford it. “We need Medicare for all! Healthcare is a RIGHT for all.”
 
Later that evening, #BernieBus nurses will join hundreds of people at a #Fightfor15 rally in downtown Des Moines to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. They will be there to publicize that there is only one presidential candidate who actually supports a $15/hr minimum wage, and that person is Bernie Sanders.
 
The #BernieBus will also have a special guest riding along Thursday: Donna Smith, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America and a longtime Medicare for all champion whose personal medical bankruptcy story was documented in the Michael Moore documentary SiCKO, will be joining nurses to explain why working Iowans should choose Bernie Sanders on Monday.
 
Where to meet the nurses and the #BernieBus Thursday, January 28
  
Council Bluffs, Iowa – 11 a.m. Visit with Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital RNs, 933 E. Pierce St., Council Bluffs, IA 51503
 
Des Moines, Iowa – 5:30 p.m. #Fightfor15 rally, 221 Walnut St. Des Moines, IA
 
The visit follows another busy and exciting day for the #BernieBus as it delivered nurses to a Women for Bernie luncheon, hosted by outspoken actor and activist Susan Sarandon, and ended the evening at a spirited Mason City town hall meeting with Sen. Sanders and Sarandon. “Being opposed to raising the minimum wage is not pragmatic, it’s cynical,” said Sarandon, firing up the crowd.

 

From left: Iowa RN Kris Dixon, actor and activist Susan Sarandon, and NNU Copresident Jean Ross, a Minnesota RN

 
And across the country in all 50 states, NNU nurse members also continue to knock on doors, phone bank, hold house parties, and participate in marches for Bernie.