Juneteenth reminds us how far we need to go to achieve equity in our workplaces and communities. “Juneteenth for me, is our true Independence Day,” said Astria Johnson, a registered nurse in the emergency department at the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC). “It honors our ancestors. My ancestors weren’t…

The registered nurses of Chinese Hospital are living role models of Asian American struggle and victory — “Representation matters.” That phrase is commonly used by Asian American Pacific Islander communities to express the importance of seeing and including Asian faces, characters, and stories in media and popular culture. It’s emblematic of the much larger and continuous struggle people of Asian descent have fought for centuries in the…

One million deaths. One million lives lost to Covid-19 in the United States. Two years ago, we nurses never thought that we would reach this grim Covid-19 milestone. We had fewer than 1,000 deaths due to Covid by the end of March 2020. As nurses, we understand that people want…

By Cathy Kennedy, RN and President, California Nurses Association As a nurse, history is a part of my daily life. Often, it’s a patient’s history. Sometimes, it’s the history of the hospital where I work or the community we serve. These histories are important for the health of patients, communities…

Every three years, National Nurses United delegates from across the country come together at the NNU convention to learn, recharge, strengthen our solidarity, and set the guiding principles for our union. The 2021 convention, held online from October 12–14, was an especially critical time for nurses to gather and collectively…

Heavy toll on Filipinx community but fighting spirit helped others survive October is Filipinx American History Month and a time to celebrate the contributions, resilience, and fighting spirit of Filipinx nurses in the United States. Registered nurses are the backbone of our health care system and Filipinx RNs have played…

Brandy Welch, a pediatric registered nurse in Southern California, is counting down the days until she expects all hell to break loose. That’s because Welch, and thousands of other nurses who care for children in our nation’s hospitals, is dreading an unprecedented and huge surge of pediatric patients with Covid-19…

By Mawata Kamara, RN Vaccines have been around for decades. As a registered nurse, I know how vaccines work. When you are vaccinated, your body can then create antibodies and fight the disease or virus. So my decision to get the Covid-19 vaccine in December was a very easy choice…

By Dahlia Tayag The ground starts shaking; the building begins to sway. An elevator carrying a patient headed for emergency surgery suddenly freezes between floors. Oxygen to a Covid-19 patient’s ventilator stops working. Lights in intensive care go dark just as a physician is putting in an emergency stent. Anesthesia…