When a hurricane turns Category 5 of a massive earthquake devastates a region, it’s a sure bet that the nurses of Registered Nurse Response Network are already recruiting nurse volunteers to help. A disaster relief program sponsored by National Nurses United and California Nurses Foundation, RNRN was organized in 2005 in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which dramatically exposed America’s flawed disaster relief system. 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.
