乌鸦传媒

Deep into a pandemic that has drained, harmed, and even killed many of their workforce, a national nurses union is resolving to start fighting back.

National Nurses United (NNU) calling for Medicare for All, safer staffing and personal protective equipment (PPE) levels at medical centers, and stronger nurse organization and resistance, at a virtual convention last week.

"Hospital policies put us in a desperate state during the pandemic," NNU President Deborah Burger, RN, told 乌鸦传媒.

"Hospitals took full advantage of this pandemic crisis. Everything they wanted to do to degrade care, deregulate care," they did, aiming to now accustom patients to these lower care standards, she said.

NNU, representing 175,000 nurses, issues resolutions every 3 years, but members felt more urgency and used more forceful language concerning some issues this year.

Members want to ensure that future pandemics and the remainder of the current one are handled scientifically -- not politically, Burger said. "Most nurses, until this pandemic, most of them did [enjoy their work]." But politicization has changed that for many. "Nurses are concerned because it's really affecting their workplace," she said.

"Profit-driven" hospital practices have in part killed healthcare workers and contributed to community COVID-19 spread, according to an . So NNU is aiming to grow global collective power, "as a critical protection against the corporate practices, political failures, and systemic inequities that worsened the impact of COVID-19 and that make us vulnerable to future pandemics."

Regarding staffing and PPE levels, the pandemic "has revealed how the devaluation of care work puts the lives of nurses and other healthcare workers at risk by creating hazardous workplaces through manufactured shortages of vital supplies like optimal PPE, unsafe staffing, and a general lack of resources to support a safe working environment," according to the release.

Burger dismissed claims by many health systems that medical supplies and healthcare workers have not been substantially available: "When employers complain about staff shortages, they're the ones that are causing it," she said. "Employers are trying to pretend they're the victim in all this, but they're not."

She cited hospitals conducting elective surgeries despite overflowing patient loads now and hiding N95 masks early in the pandemic as evidence.

"All employers really care about is the bottom line and turning a profit, and they've made out like bandits during this pandemic because they're posting record profits," Burger continued. "They got all this government support (), but they have not put it back into patient care."

NNU called for publicly monitoring and investing more in PPE supplies; increasing public health capacities and funding to specially aid Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities; and passing federal nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

NNU reaffirmed its support for a Medicare for All single-payer system, labeling healthcare a "human right" in the U.S. The union hopes to achieve universal Medicare through "nurse-led, grassroots mobilization in coalition with labor and community allies," by expanding current Medicare services to ease the transition, and "reallocating money currently spent on policing, incarceration, and the military" to single-payer programs.

Universal Medicare is the only way to address healthcare access issues, Burger said.

NNU will also oppose any "right to work" legislation and corporate industry "assaults" on RN rights, pay, benefits, health, and patient advocacy. Right-to-work laws prevent nurses from advocating for themselves or patients, Burger added.

A resolution also "condemned the use of technology in diagnosis and treatment of patients; and use of electronic surveillance, record keeping, and data collection to impose additional charges for profits."

NNU also promises to campaign for nurses to be employed as they traditionally have, opposing trends seeking to replace their labor via telehealth and family caregiving at home, for example. "Do they pay family members to provide that care at home? Hell no!" Burger said.

Another resolution calls for leave for domestic violence victims, federal paid parental leave, and improving family and sick leave. The resolution also opposes "restrictions on women's health services" including abortion rights. NNU felt it necessary to weigh in here given anti-abortion policies , Burger said.

NNU also called white supremacy and racism a public health crisis, and said the organization supports reparations for Black Americans.

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