This means developing educational programs at national and state conventions and developing educational materials for dissemination to nurses and to the public. Nurses in SNAs need to pressure the ANA to do this. I would also hope nurses would join the Nurses Network for a National Health Program because this is the only national organization for nurses whose sole reason for being is to promote universal health care under a single payer system. Physicians for a National Health Program has 8,000 members. The Nurses Network should have four times that many because there s four times as many nurses as doctors.
Nurses have so much to gain and, if the system is properly designed and funded, very little to lose.
That s why it s really important for nurses to join together now to fight for single payer universal health care. But if nurses mobilize they can have an enormous impact. Look what nurses in Massachusetts have accomplished around patient safety, whistleblower and BORN reform. Look what nurses in California have done to protect patients through safe staffing bills. If nurses work with physicians, patients and families, we can have a universal health care system, and sooner rather than later.