RN Response Network

Group of nurses in red scrub shirts holding RNRN banner

About RN Response Network

The RN Response Network (RNRN) is a national network of direct-care RNs — powered by National Nurses United — that coordinates sending volunteers to disaster stricken areas where and when they are needed most. Learn more »

Nurse with RNRN t-shirt crouches nexr to toddler

Join RNRN volunteers

If you are a Registered Nurse interested in volunteering for disaster stricken areas, join over 30,000 RNs who make up the RN Response Network. Join us »

Nurses on deployment prepare for patients

Donate to RNRN

Donate to get nurses where they are needed most! With RN Response Network, nurses can focus on providing patient care. RNRN takes care of everything else – including raising funds to cover airfare and lodging. Donate »

Three nurses wearing RNRN red scrubs standing together with arms around each other.

Deployment FAQs

Interested in volunteering but want to know more? Read our answers for some of the most frequently asked questions about RN Response Network volunteering and deployment.

Group of 4 RNRN volunteers hold hands looking down on destruction caused by forest fire.

Resource: Wildfire Smoke Is Dangerous To Your Health

Wildfire smoke contains many air pollutants that are known to contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory outcomes. Read our flyer for tips on how to keep you and your community safe from wildfire smoke.

Compassion Without Borders: RNs Report on the Public Health Crisis at the Border

In 2019, as reports of a dire situation at the border emerged, RNRN was moved to act and deployed 20 teams of volunteer registered nurses to provide basic medical care at border shelters from January 2019 to July 2019.

Report: Conditions in Puerto Rico And Call for Immediate Congressional Action

In 2017, a delegation of 50 volunteer registered nurses deployed to Puerto Rico for a two-week disaster relief effort in the wake of Hurricane Maria. These RNs witnessed communities and neighborhoods that remained devastated weeks after hurricane Maria made landfall.

Videos

RNRN: An Overview

RNRN's deployments have included responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017, and many more.

Compassion Without Borders

Registered nurses with RNRN provided critical medical aid for asylum seekers in Tucson, Arizona.

All RNRN videos

Since its formation, RNRN has sent teams of nurses to help following disasters in locations across the United States and around the world, including California, Florida, New York, Texas, Haiti, the Philippines, and the Bahamas. RNRN has also provided basic humanitarian aid and medical support to underserved communities within the United States as well as in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

Articles

Destroyed homes and cars in the aftermath of the Altadena fire.

Giving Back

When Mary-Jane Perry, RN looked out the window as her airplane approached Los Angeles International Airport on January 19, she glimpsed some of the devastation from the Palisades Fire. “It was unreal, post-apocalyptic,” said Perry, who had flown down from Sacramento to volunteer with the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN) in the wake of two of the most destructive fires in California history. “It was just ashes. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, but then realized that’s where homes were supposed to be.”
Four nurses in RNRN hats and shirts, posing together, smiling.

Wake of the Storm

RNRN nurse volunteers provided all types of healing in Asheville, N.C. after Hurricane Helene which swept through the Gulf Coast and southeastern United States, killing more than 200 people and leaving billions of dollars in damage.
Group of RNRN volunteer nurses sitting at Guatemala clinic site

Nurse volunteers staffed free health clinics in Guatemala

A team of volunteer registered nurses returned on April 24 from Guatemala, where they provided free medical care in rural, severely underserved areas as part of Registered Nurse Response Network.

Press releases

RNRN web header image

RN Response Network Monitoring Massive Los Angeles-area Fires, Evacuations

The Registered Nurse Response Network is currently monitoring the severe wildfires that have damaged or destroyed thousands of structures and caused five deaths across the greater Los Angeles area. RNRN will continue assessing the situation and the potential need to activate nurse volunteers in response. 
Two nurses inside hospital wearing RNRN shirts and hats preparing clinic

Nurse volunteers deployed to Asheville to support Hurricane Helene recovery

Registered Nurse Response Network, in partnership with International Medical Corps, deployed two teams of nurse volunteers to Asheville, N.C. to support the Hurricane Helene recovery. The fourteen nurses who volunteered on the Asheville RNRN deployment cared for residents who had arrived at shelters and clinics in the immediate aftermath of the unprecedented storm.
Four nurses in red scrubs in rural area of Guatemala

Nurse volunteers deployed to Guatemala for free health clinics

A team of volunteer registered nurses returned today from Guatemala, where they provided free medical care in rural, severely underserved areas as part of Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), a disaster-relief project of National Nurses United and the California Nurses Foundation.
Four RNRN volunteers standing in front of tent

Nurse volunteers provide medical care in wake of Hurricane Ian

Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), in partnership with International Medical Corps, deployed a team of nurse volunteers to Florida earlier this month to help provide medical assistance in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The RNRN team has returned from their two-week deployment.
All RNRN press releases

Blog

RNRN volunteer with young girle

RN Response Network July 2020 update

RNRN is monitoring the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which is setting records with Hurricane Isaias being the earliest “I” named hurricane in history. In California, there have already been over 4500 fires, more than twice the average normally recorded at this point in the season.
RN Mary Jane Perry in Bahamas

RNRN sends nurses to disaster areas

RNRN volunteer nurses traveled to the devastated Gulf Coast to help provide care for the hundreds of thousands of people abandoned and without food, water, shelter, medical aid, nursing care, or even a basic evacuation plan.
RN in El Paso

Answering the call — Registered Nurses provide critical care to migrant families

Registered Nurse Response Network volunteers spent three days at Casa Alitas, a Catholic Community Services shelter in Tucson, Ariz., providing medical care to migrant families and asylum seekers recently released from federal detention.