Blog

There Is No Other Planet We Can Go To

With the magnificent expanse of the Golden Gate Bridge as backdrop and pathway, nurses from across the U.S. rallied on Thursday to call an end to the Keystone XL Pipeline project, a ghastly effort to transport poisonous tar sands 1,700 miles from Canada to Texas, exposing hundreds of communities en route to calamitous spills, ruined water systems and deleterious health effects. Nurses also called for an end to the politics of austerity, one that puts the false choices – jobs through environmental degradation – before us. “Nothing related to Keystone XL is good for our families, our communities, or our planet,” announced Debra Burger, RN and NNU co-president from the rally stage. “From extraction to transport to refining, tar sands oil will exacerbate our current health emergency…. This is a clear and present danger to public health.”

National Nurses United

Giving the Nurses’ Gift of Healing to the Philippines this Thanksgiving

Thanks to your donations and willingness to volunteer, RNRN now has mobile medical clinics up and running in the Philippines that hundreds of typhoon victims are lining up to use every day. Nurses have stationed themselves at a ruined chapel, a local gym, and other sites in Roxas City on Panay, one of the islands hard hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan. They are providing much needed medications, wound care, vaccinations for tetanus and other shots, and assessing and treating all kinds of injuries and illnesses.

RN Response Network

Nurses Take Campaign to Heal America to Congress

Registered nurses from across the country went to Washington DC last week to urge Congress to take action to fix the nation’s broken health care system by enacting Medicare for All. While our nation’s health care system has incredibly capable nurses and other health professionals, and boasts a variety of other advantages like the highest spending per person in the world, we don’t get the outcomes we should. Far too many go without health care when they need it. Our nation ranks behind 19 industrialized countries in preventable deaths among those under age 75.

Deborah Burger, National Nurses United

Scenes from Climate Change Summit in Peru

Nurses landed in Lima, Peru this week at the start of the United Nations Climate Change Summit - #COP20. We're here to emphasize the health impact of our climate crisis and to let people know we want to be part of the solution. We're joining thousands of other activists and meeting allies who are gathering for forums, discussions and protests during this historic environmental justice moment.

Lara Norkus-Crampton, RN

Nurses Lead “Reclaim Chicago”

With a runoff vote just days away, one Chicago politician figures almost as prominently in the city’s mayoral campaign as do the two candidates themselves, incumbent Rahm Emmanuel and his challenger, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

Pattie Lockard, Nurse Talk Radio

A Decade After Katrina, RNs Reflect on What We’ve Learned and Refuse to Learn

On the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction along the Gulf Coast, registered nurse volunteers with the disaster relief program, Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), which sent hundreds of RN volunteers to provide disaster relief to the region in the wake of the deadly storm, say that critical lessons which exacerbated the 2005 crisis – global climate change, our lack of a national healthcare system, and failure to invest in public resources and infrastructure – have still not been learned.

National Nurses United

Update on Zika Virus Research

The international scientific community is working hard to gather information and to better understand the information we already have about Zika virus and the possible risks for microcephaly/other congenital effects and Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS).

National Nurses United

Louisiana Flood Victim Relief — How to Help

The devastating floods in Louisiana, the effects of which are being compared to Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina, have left in their wake an estimated 40,000 damaged homes over an area covering 20 parishes.

National Nurses United

Medicare for all — use formula to replace ACA

"Praying for health shouldn’t be the foundation of a modern healthcare system. But that’s where millions of uninsured Americans still find themselves,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus Jan. 6, quoting the fears of Los Angeles resident Madelyn Gilbreath about the expected vote by Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

NNU Executive Director, RoseAnn DeMoro, Contributing to The Hill

New National ‘Ratios’ Bills Set Safety Limits on Number of Patients Assigned to Nurses

In 49 states, there are no limits on how many patients hospital corporations can assign to nurses at one time. National Nurses United-sponsored legislation fights back.

Bonnie Castillo, NNU Director of Health & Safety