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NNU PHOTO Bonnie Castillo leads National Nurses United, the largest RN union in the U.S. |
National Nurses United (NNU) Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN, will join other leaders to testify at a Senate Budget Committee hearing today, May 12, to tell Congress why nurses, based on their frontline role in health care, support Medicare for All.
Castillo, a Filipino American registered nurse based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will join a panel at the 11 a.m. hearing chaired by Medicare for All champion Senator Bernie Sanders. D-VT, to be held on International Nurses Day, the final day of National Nurses Week 2022.
“As the largest union of registered nurses in the country, we at NNU are very familiar with the fact that no real change is ever won without collective action,” Castillo said ahead of today's hearing.
“Just as we have to fight together inside our workplaces for protections for our patients and for ourselves, we have to struggle in our communities and in the halls of Congress. In fact, we view it as an extension of our work to take care of our patients at the bedside.”
For decades, NNU members have seen firsthand how money-driven health care systems worsen medical outcomes for patients and working conditions for nurses and other health care professionals. This historic trend of mismanagement has been exacerbated by the global pandemic, and Covid-19 has only heightened the obvious necessity of moving to a Medicare for All model.
“We are seeing unprecedented momentum for Medicare for All not just among nurses, but as part of a growing movement demanding health justice,” Castillo said. “It is past time for the United States government to listen to nurses and listen to the people as we demand: Pass Medicare for All and guarantee health care as a human right.”
Foreign-born workers make up about a sixth of the U.S. nursing workforce, and the need is increasing, nursing associations and staffing agencies report, as nurses increasingly leave the profession.
Castillo, a Filipino American registered nurse based in the San Francisco Bay Area, will join a panel at the 11 a.m. hearing chaired by Medicare for All champion Senator Bernie Sanders. D-VT, to be held on International Nurses Day, the final day of National Nurses Week 2022.
“As the largest union of registered nurses in the country, we at NNU are very familiar with the fact that no real change is ever won without collective action,” Castillo said ahead of today's hearing.
“Just as we have to fight together inside our workplaces for protections for our patients and for ourselves, we have to struggle in our communities and in the halls of Congress. In fact, we view it as an extension of our work to take care of our patients at the bedside.”
For decades, NNU members have seen firsthand how money-driven health care systems worsen medical outcomes for patients and working conditions for nurses and other health care professionals. This historic trend of mismanagement has been exacerbated by the global pandemic, and Covid-19 has only heightened the obvious necessity of moving to a Medicare for All model.
“We are seeing unprecedented momentum for Medicare for All not just among nurses, but as part of a growing movement demanding health justice,” Castillo said. “It is past time for the United States government to listen to nurses and listen to the people as we demand: Pass Medicare for All and guarantee health care as a human right.”
Foreign-born workers make up about a sixth of the U.S. nursing workforce, and the need is increasing, nursing associations and staffing agencies report, as nurses increasingly leave the profession.
Nurses from the Philippines and Filipino American nurses make up a large part of the health care system in the United States. In 2019, one of 20 registered nurses in the United States was trained in the Philippines, according to TiME magazine.
With nurses leaving the profession, U.S. hospitals are again looking to recruiting nurses from the Philippines to fill the shortage of nursing professionals.
With nurses leaving the profession, U.S. hospitals are again looking to recruiting nurses from the Philippines to fill the shortage of nursing professionals.
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