Kicked in the chest by a combative patient. Choked with her own stethoscope. Left to fend for himself when a visitor arrived at the hospital with a gun. These are some of the personal experiences shared today by NNU nurses from around the country at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C. on workplace violence in healthcare settings.
RN Amy Bowen just returned from a week in Houston and Beaumont. Amy talks about how she and her fellow nurses from the Registered Nurse Response Network worked side by side with local medical professionals, who were also volunteering—to give aid to those in need.
RNRN nurse volunteers spent two weeks in Puerto Rico advocating for residents to receive the most basic of care: clean water, food, shelter, medicine. Where was our government?
Blue Shield of California today announced a 60-day reprieve in an unconscionable rate hike of up to 59 percent it intends to foist on individuals and families. The announcement coincided with announced plans by nurses, patients, and consumer advocates who stormed Blue Shield's posh California corporate headquarters in downtown San Francisco.
It has been a challenging week for many people. While our elected officials have been broadly reported to be at odds about exactly how to raise the debt ceiling or not, millions of Americans have no work, are running out of ways to keep their homes – rented or owned, and struggle even to keep the basic necessities for themselves and their families.
Just think how drastically your nursing practice would change for the worse if your patients’ caregivers or family members were allowed to give them medications in the hospital? That is just one of many recent changes proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid as conditions of participation.
Notes from the road in California: I’ve been on the National Nurses United Medicare for All for life bus tour since mid-June, with one break to travel to Philadelphia for the SiCKO 5th reunion. So first let me admit I have a bit of “bus brain†going on. It’s a condition that goes along with being on an advocacy tour, without the restorative comforts of home. Today we head for Santa Cruz. Join us!
The shameless spectacle of billionaires drowning the airwaves should not numb us to the consequences of what is at stake if the super rich succeed in buying our elections. While most of the national focus is on the Presidential race and some high profile Senate elections, the less profiled California ballot measures provide a disturbing portrait of what is a clearly broken system.
