NNU Asks How the Economic Crisis Is Affecting You

Last spring, NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro asked RNs across the nation to share stories about how the economic crisis was affecting their patients and their families. Since then, we have seen the healthcare crisis continue to deepen for millions of American patients and families, as described in RoseAnn’s commentary below.

The many heartfelt responsibilities they received were deeply moving, and we have shared many of them, with your approval, with the media and the public in an ongoing effort to urge action to protect our families and communities. As RoseAnn notes, the need for action is greater than ever, and we hope to continue to share your stories as a call to end our healthcare nightmare once and for all and to promote other changes in national, state and local priorities.

They request for you to continue to send your stories, and those from your family, neighbors, and friends. For openings, below is the personal story Donna Smith of NNU, a frequent Nurse Talk guest, who you may remember as well from Michael Moore’s film “SiCKO.”

Please share your story here! | Read sample stories

Watch and share this video:

Rose An DeMoro

The Real Cure for “Obamacare”: Medicare for All

By Rose Ann DeMoro
NNU Executive Director

With the approaching Supreme Court showdown on the President Obama’s 2010 health care law (the Affordable Care Act, modeled on Mitt Romney’s law in Massachusetts), the U.S. healthcare system remains a dysfunctional mess, as nurses bear witness to every day. In late March, the Court will devote six hours over three days to oral arguments on the legal challenges to the law – the most time the Court has given a case in 56 years – accompanied by a possible record 100 “friend of the court” briefs, Kaiser Health News reported February 16.

As nurses have observed the past year, the economic crisis has accelerated broad declines in health linked to job loss, high medical bills, and families having to choose between paying for food, housing, clothing or healthcare. More »

Donna Smith

I Dreamed About My Cancer Docs Last Night

By Donna Smith
NNU Staff, Patient

My sleep was restless last night except for the snippets of scenes where I was being tended to by my cancer doctors from some time ago. In those dreams they cared for my body and comforted my fears as we worked together to overcome my illness. Of course time had changed things a bit and their offices were interwoven with the sweet things only dreams can infuse, but it sure was nice to revisit a time in my medical life when the system was even a little less broken than it is today. Don’t get me wrong, the bills were crushing then and some of the barriers daunting, but the slide to an even more difficult healthcare system for patients and our providers continues and deepens. More »

Tell NNU where it hurts you!

The nurses will listen.  But more importantly, the nurses will make sure that the shared stories are the fabric of their truthful assessment of the broken system and that when the transformed system becomes a reality that the stories are part of history.

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