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.

National Nurses United
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 1100
Silver Spring, MD 20910
www.NationalNursesUnited.org

Dan's New Sign

Well not everything…just our astrological signs. Dan shows up to the show a former Cancer and he claims he’s now a two-door full-throttle Scorpio. WHO ARE YOU NOW BABY?!

DeAnn McEwen, RN

Hey, we have a great show coming up. Our good friend RN DeAnn McEwen joins us. DeAnn is an ICU nurse at Long Beach Medical Center and a member of the CNA/NNU Council of Presidents. She shares with us her view of “Obamacare” and why it is not the bill those of us who wanted single payer health care for all would have chosen.

Why single payer? DeAnn says, “If an RN believes in the premise that all persons have the right to access basic health care, and to be treated with respect and dignity, then his or her behavior will be more likely to be congruent with this belief.” What’s next for health care? Listen and find out.AND it’s time to make someone out there laugh! Casey and Dan make random acts of kindness look better all the time. They reach out and touch some folks to see if they might share a laugh. Some do…..and some? Not so much.

And just to remind our friends and listeners out there…the 2011 uninsured death toll for California is 121 for the U.S. 1,287.