Registered Nurse magazine not only covers the activities of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee, but also strives to produce hard-hitting news features and thoughtful analyses about nursing and the real ills plaguing the U.S. healthcare system.

You’ll find true stories from the front lines of care given by the nation’s 2.5 million registered nurses, as well as articles about nursing practice, public health, healthcare policy, and the healthcare industry. Through our reporting, we hope to inspire a movement toward a humane and just healthcare system for all. The magazine is published 10 times per year by CNA/NNOC, with combined issues in summer and winter.

FEATURES
10 Writing on theWalls
America’s healthcare crisis is spawning a publishing glut of books related tomedicine, hospitals, providers, and policy.We’ve reviewed some of themost interesting ones you’ll want to know about, and the ones you need to know about.

18 Don’t GetMad, Get Blogging
Online blogs are a way for nurses to reach way beyond their workplaces and communities to educate others about the healthcare crisis and real solutions. Learn why nurses should blog and how to get started. By DavidWelch, RN

22 Social Responsibility
CNA/NNOC boardmemberMaureen Dugan, RN was raised with the ethics of serving her local San Francisco community. By Erika Larson

DEPARTMENTS
4 News Briefs
With our nation’s healthcare in shambles, it’s critical to take a closer look at howthe presidential candidates are proposing to fix the system; Cook County RNs fightmultiple fronts in contract negotiations and patient care;Medicare turns 43, but under privatization attack; CNA/NNOC creates new fund to support candidates who support Medicare for all; AroostookMedical Center nurses get big wins in new contract; Texas nurses gear up to launch Patient Protection Act; Cypress-Fairbanks RNsmake headway in contract talks.

9 Shooting Yourself in the Foot
With the public demanding real change in our healthcare system, why isHealth Care for America Now giving up on real reformright out of the gate? By Rose Ann DeMoro

Download Registered Nurse magazine, July/August 2008

PDF format, 1.9MB, 24Pages.

LETTER FROM THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENTS

This 2008 election year is shaping up to be perhaps the most seminal one in a generation.We working Americans are, quite literally, hurting. Many of us are having to forgo gassing up the car, paying the mortgage, putting enough food on the table, or filling our blood pressure medications. Most families’ finances are so fragile that the slightest illness can tip them over an edge, sending them into economic freefall. Let’s face it:We’re all worried and scared.

One of the top challenges for the next president will be to fix the healthcare crisis and bring back some measure of health security for all Americans. The race has narrowed to two major candidates, senators John McCain and Barack Obama, and their healthcare platforms could not be farther apart. How well versed are you with the main components of their plans and where they stand on healthcare issues? Lucky for you, we’ve scrutinized their campaign literature and what they’ve said publicly about how they’d fix the system.

Check out our analysis in this issue’s news section. Also this month, RN board member DavidWelch fills us Luddites in on the world of blogging. David admits he is not a very techie kind of guy, but he started reading some blog websites a couple years ago and quickly realized how many people blogs are nowreaching and influencing.

For activists like us, nurses trying to build a national movement to reformhealthcare, it’s critical that we get out there and join the online conversation.

Many thanks to David for writing an article outlining the basics of blogging and how to get started. If you already spend a fair amount of time surfing the Internet, know how to write an email, and have some strong opinions on healthcare, you are the perfect blogger. David says if he can do it, you can too.

Last, this issue includes our annual summer book review special. Every yearmore andmore healthcare-related books cross our desks, and some of the most intriguing ones are reviewed here. We hope you’ll come across one that will prompt you to readmore or rethink your practice.

Here’s wishing you are enjoying your summer. Get your R&R in now, because we’ll be busy come fall!

Deborah Burger, RN | Geri Jenkins, RN
MalindaMarkowitz, RN | Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN
CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents

Visit The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee Website

The California Nurses Association, and its national arm, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, is one of the nation’s premiere nurses’ organizations and health care unions. One of the fastest growing health care organizations in the U.S., CNA/NNOC presently has 80,000 members in 50 states, representing nurses at scores of hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies. Since 2000, over 19,000 RNs at 50 hospitals have elected to affiliate with CNA.

CNA/NNOC is a leading national advocate for universal healthcare reform, through a single-payer style system based on an improved and expanded Medicare for all. In 2007, CNA/NNOC is campaigning for single-payer legislation, HR 676 in Congress, and SB 840 in California.

Additionally, CNA/NNOC has attracted national and international acclaim for sponsoring the nation’s foremost RN patient safety law requiring minimum RN-to-patient ratios, the most effective solution in the U.S. for stemming the erosion of care standards in hospitals.

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