Has anybody around here heard about the
National Nurse project? It started on Blog for America during the Dean campaign when a single poster, a volunteer named Teri, started thinking about and talking about how the nation needs a National Nurse, kind of like a surgeon general, but to promote health education and also to highlight nursing as a career, especially given the dangerous shortage that hospitals are experiencing across the country. She talked to Gov Dean about it, was encouraged by the response, and kept talking about it.
Well, some time last year I came across her email address and asked her what was happening, that I remembered her and thought her idea was great. She emailed back saying she had been talking to people about it more and more and was launching a project to try to make it happen.
So, fast forward to now:
Here's what has become of something that started as an idea from a commenter on a blog full of amateur political activists, many who had never been active ever before - a recent statement from
her blog:
Representative Pete Stark (CA) is a member of the House Nursing Caucus and released this statement about the National Nurse Act of 2006:
I am pleased to join my colleague Lois Capps in support of H.R. 4903. Her leadership is vital on this issue because, in addition to being a respected Member of Congress, she is a nurse. You could not have a better spokesperson for this legislation.
Creating an office of the national nurse is an important endeavor. Such a designation would increase the visibility of nursing as an esteemed career choice and would help us try to repopulate our schools of nursing with trained educators.
But H.R. 4903 is only one of the many steps needed to improve the nursing profession in our country. I have also been working to enact legislation to strictly limit the use of mandatory overtime for nurses. H.R. 3861, the Safe Nursing and Patient Care Act, would prohibit the use of mandatory nurse overtime unless a local, state or federal government declared a state of emergency.
We have more than 500,000 trained nurses in this country who are not practicing their profession. Many of them tell me that the main reason is that they can no longer feel they practice safe nursing. Being forced to work hours beyond what they believe is appropriate for them to provide quality care is dangerous for nurses and patients alike.
Again, I am pleased to support HR 4903 and I encourage you to work for its passage as well as the enactment of other needed legislation to improve the nursing environment in our nation.
H.R. 4903, The National Nurse Act
Here are the current sponsors:
Sponsor: Lois Capps
Co Sponsors:
Rep. Thomas Allen (D-ME)
Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ)
Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-OR)
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA)
Rep. John Olver (D-MA)
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ)
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA)
Rep. Ted Strickland (D-OH)
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY)
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Rep. David Wu (D-OR)
So what's my point?
1. Support this resolution by asking your Representative to sponsor it.
2. This is the potential power of the netroots. It starts with one person, one idea, speaking up about it, asking for feedback. We can do more of this. This is the power we have in our hands. Us it or lose it.