Registered nurses from District of Columbia hospitals, joined by community allies, will picket a fundraiser for DC Councilwoman Yvette Alexander hosted by a hospital industry powerbroker tonight to step up the call for the District Council to move forward on a critical patient safety bill.

As the Affordable Care Act’s insurance market exchanges open for business Tuesday, Kaiser Permanente RNs today launched a campaign to advise enrollees to ask tough questions and be wary of enrolling in insurance plans that limit your access to a hospital and to safe nursing care.

It’s over – with a resounding triumph for thousands of registered nurses at five San Francisco Bay Area hospitals operated by the large Sutter Health system who have managed to defend patient care protections and nursing standards from an employer insistent on sweeping concessions in a long running dispute. After nine strikes over two years, with multiple days added on by company lockouts, the RNs have won tentative agreements for new collective bargaining agreements premised on elimination of nearly 200 concession demands by Sutter that were the main issue in the confrontation.

On the eve of the opening of insurance signups under the Affordable Care Act, registered nurses will rally outside three Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California Monday with a message for consumers – be wary of enrolling in insurance plans that limit your access to a hospital and to safe nursing care. Kaiser, say RNs, has been making it harder for patients to be admitted for hospital care when sick or injured and sending patients home or to other settings when they should still be in the hospital. As part of that shift away from hospital care, Kaiser has been reducing RN staffing in its hospitals.

SAN DIEGO—The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, California’s largest and leading organization of nurses, has endorsed San Diego City Council member David Alvarez for mayor and will join a Thursday press conference with other leading community leaders to support his candidacy.

LAPEER – More than 100 registered nurses from McLaren Lapeer Region and community members rallied Monday to demand that hospital CEO Bart Buxton fix the chronic understaffing that can put their patients’ safety at risk. The nurses want to be able to provide safe, quality care to every patient and have been asking the administration to solve serious nurse staffing problems for months.

The measure responds to efforts by hospital networks to cut needed services in an effort to boost profits even though the DPH has deemed these services to be essential for the communities served by those hospitals. Nurses and other advocates for access to needed health care services will testify, including a nurse from North Adams Regional Hospital, which has announced a plan to shutter the hospital’s inpatient psychiatric unit, pediatric unit and critical care unit.