Nurses Rally On Capitol Hill For Patient Safety Laws

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

To the trumpet blare of "When The Saints Go Marching In," a thousand-strong sea of red-shirted nurses converged on Capitol Hill yesterday morning to press Congress for landmark patient safety legislation. Wearing t-shirts proclaiming "Save one life you're a hero - save a hundred lives and you're a nurse," the nurses marched from Union Station to Upper Senate park, chanting "We are the nurses, the mighty mighty nurses." Cathy Davis - a Registered Nurse from California with over 20 years experience - told Union City that "We need Congress to pass legislation that not only provides better working conditions for nurses across America, but also better protects consumers." The nurses' Capitol Hill visit "draws a lot of attention from health care consumers, which helps us put the heat on Congress from voters far and near." The nurses' legislative demands include new rules that establish minimum ratios of nurses to patients for all U.S. hospitals, promote nurse retention and reduce patient accidents and injuries by establishing safe patient lifting and handling policies, and create equal collective bargaining rights for Veterans Affairs nurses. "We come from all corners of America, we're not going away and we mean business," added Davis. National Nurses United - the largest union and professional association of RNs in U.S. history with 155,000 members nationwide - organized the lobby effort. Click here for radio coverage of the rally on Workers Independent News. - report/photos by Adam Wright