Health and Safety

Nurse outside U.S. capitol holding signs calling for workplace violence prevention

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.

Nurse holds sign "Science Matters, We Are Not Expendable"

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.

Nurs holds sign "Protect Nurses, Patients, Public Health"

Urge the CDC to listen to frontline health care workers and patients!

Take action now to help ensure CDC and HICPAC protect health care workers and patients from infectious diseases. 

Our campaigns

Nurse holds sign "Save Lives: Safe Staffing Now"

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.

Nurses outside Capitol building hold signs calling for workplace safety

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.

Nurses transfering patient to bed

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

Nurse hold signs "Protect Nurses, Patients, Public Health"

Covid-19

View all our resources on Covid-19 and protecting nurses and other health care workers and their patients.

Graphic of Mpox in human sysetm

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 tranmission graphic

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.

Nurse with headache

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

Button on nurses chest reads "Safe Staffing Saves Lives"

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.

Nurse holding sign "Workplace violence put everyone at risk"

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.

Nurses outside Capitol Building hold vigil for fallen nurses

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.

Press releases

Slashing the Covid isolation guidance from five days to potentially just 24 hours based on the presence of fever ignores the available scientific evidence that people with Covid infections often remain infectious well beyond five days.
National Nurses United applauds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for sending the draft infection control guidance back to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee to resolve some significant issues in the draft.
National Nurses United condemns the unanimous vote by the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to finalize a draft of infection control guidelines before giving the public ample time to review the draft or before seeking input from health care workers and patients whose health and safety will be directly impacted by this guidance.
Thousands of registered nurse members of National Nurses United will hold a national day of action to demand that their employers address the current nationwide staffing crisis by ensuring there is safe staffing on all units at all times and that nurses have the resources they need to care for their patients.