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 In Over OurHeads
U.S. veterans are returning with an astounding rate of traumatic brain injuries, but both our research and healthcare infrastructure to treat the problem are lacking.What kind of future awaits this generation of soldiers? By ConnHallinan and Carl Bloice

16 A Living Legacy
San Francisco unionism was the legacy passed on to CNA/NNOC boardmember Diane Koorsones, RN. She hopes to leave single-payer healthcare as hers. By Erika Larson

DEPARTMENTS
4 News Briefs
Texas RNs win a historic victory two times over;Majority of Las Vegas RNs back CNA/NNOC, reject SEIU; Court upholds UC RNs’ right to strike; Chicago nurses take the cake; CNA/NNOC talks critical issues at critical care conference.

9 Moment of Opportunity
How California’s SB 840 can jumpstart single-payer healthcare for the entire country. By Rose Ann DeMoro

18 The True Forces BehindMagnetism
As CNA/NNOC explores in its position statement, designating hospitals as “magnet” facilities reveals that, in today’s profit-driven healthcare system, the programis in conflict with the interests of registered nurses and patients. Submitted by the Joint Nursing Practice Commission andHedy Dumpel, RN, JD

Download Registered Nurse magazine, May 2008

PDF format, 1.5MB, 24Pages.

LETTER FROM THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENTS

You know how, when we were settling the country, they always told the pioneers to “Go west”? Well, here at CNA/NNOC, we’re doing it in reverse.

In our quest to expand RN representation and build the nurses’ movement across the United States, we’re starting from California and heading east!

We’re happy to report that, recently, we’ve won two major organizing victories – a huge, historic vote in Houston, Texas and another one in Las Vegas, Nev.

In Texas, registered nurseswith Cypress FairbanksMedical Center voted to join CNA/NNOC, becoming the first collective bargaining unit in thewhole state of RNsworking in private-sector hospitals. This is a phenomenal victory, achieved in an extremely anti-union state and political climate.

You can read all about it in the news section. In Nevada, hundreds of nurses working for St. Rose Dominican Hospitals near Las Vegas basically booted out their current union, Service Employees InternationalUnion Local 1107, in favor of joining CNA/NNOC. After only a couple short months of organizing, we won the most votes in a May 7 election there. Because labor rules require us to win themajority plus one, wemay have to hold a runoff election there even thoughwewon the plurality. But this vote is really symbolic of how unhappy RNs are with SEIU representation.

These nurses are just the front line of an anticipated wave of nurse defections fromSEIU.

In April, University of California RNs won an incredible legal victory that affirmed public employees’ right to go on strike and bargain over better staffing and other patient care issues. This is a major decision that affects all public employees and protects one of the most effective tools of last-resort of nurses in advocating for themselves and patients.

In our features section, learn about how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating awhole generation of veterans who suffer from traumatic brain injuries and how ill equipped we are to deal with this crisis.

It’s just another facet of the healthcare crisis and about our urgent need to enact reform that provides a single, high standard of care to everyone, nomatter what.

The first step on the checklist toward that goal is to get private health insurance companies out of the picture.

That’swhywe’re organizing a huge protest in San Francisco on June 19 of the health insurance industry, to coincidewith the industry’s annual convention. Check our back cover for details on how to participate, and please come out and speak up about how we need to prioritize patients, not profits.

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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