Ever stop for a moment and consider what makes a nurse a nurse? Why is what registered nurses do called nursing practice? What are the ramifications to nursing if a nurse in Ohio cares remotely for a patient in Oregon? What does it mean for nursing if family members and unlicensed staff are trained to perform certain functions nurses do? For the 20 RN members of National Nurses United’s Joint Nursing Practice Commission, these are questions they ponder and debate daily.

How is our health affected by the society in which we live? Why are U.S. patients consistently among the sickest in the industrialized world, despite having the highest health expenditure per person? How has the investment of tens of billions of dollars in healthcare technology affected patients and the nursing profession?

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?

The national opioid epidemic has a very real and direct consequence for registered nurses:

Patients using opioids who are brought into hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare settings could expose RNs and other healthcare workers to dangerous and potentially fatal concentrations of these chemical compounds.