Teri Mills's blog

Sponsors!
We now have 13 co-sponsors to HR 4903 and welcome our latest additions to the growing list- Representative Henry Waxman (CA) who is a member of the House Health Committee and Representative Steny Hoyer (MD), the House Minority Whip.

The Team Travels To Washington D.C.
Teri, Alisa, and Terri, along with five other nurses and State Representative Marcia Moody (NH), will be traveling to Washington D.C. next Wednesday to meet with the health policy aides of Senators Craig, Kennedy, and Harkin. The team also has meetings with several leaders in the House Health Committee where the bill now sits.

Help!
The team needs your help with this venture. As you are aware, the cost of travel has gone up along with gasoline prices. If you could contribute (even $5) to help offset the expenses, Teri and the National Nurse team would be immensely appreciative. The National Nursing Network Organization is a non-profit corporation, but is not tax-exempt and therefore contributions are not tax-deductible. Donations can be made online.

Exciting News to Report !!

The National Nurse Team is delighted to announce that the bill to establish an Office of the National Nurse has been introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 8th, 2006. The bill is HR 4903 and can be viewed in its entirety later today or tomorrow at http://www.thomas.loc.gov

We all thank Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) and her dedicated staff for introducing this bill during the second session of the 109th session of Congress.

HR 4903 establishes an Office of the National Nurse that will:

1. Involve all Americans in preventive health practices.
2. Complement health services already in place.

We have great news to share with you about the National Nurse proposal since our last newsletter.

The American Association of Community Colleges has invited the team to speak at their annual convention on April 23rd in Long Beach, California. Public health nurses in the Orange County vicinity expressed interest in hearing the presentation, and we are pleased that they are working to make this happen.

On March 31st, the team will be traveling to Mt. Wachusetts Community College located in Gardner, Massachusetts to keynote a statewide nursing conference hosted by the health program deans of the fifteen Massachusetts community colleges. This conference is free to the public and if you are interested in attending, please email teri@nationalnurse.info.

We have seen a flurry of excitement and action since RN Magazine’s editor, Marya Ostrowski, came out with a resounding editorial in support of a National Nurse. Also, we want to thank each one of you who signed up to receive our newsletter, and for forwarding it to others so that they too may learn about our proposal for an Office of the National Nurse.

The National Nurse Team (Teri, Terri, and Alisa) have been inundated with a number of requests, including speaking engagements, the possibility of video streaming our conference presentations on our website, adding information about how to successfully lobby our elected representatives about the National Nurse, and the day to day work of maintaining the website, adding to our research/reference base, and writing these newsletters.

There has been a great deal of activity to report on since writing to you a couple of weeks ago. Several nurses have written with their input and also to request information about the National Nurse proposal. We have heard from supporters in Colorado, Utah, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California just to name a few. We have made an effort to post some of their emails (after obtaining permission) with our response at www.nationalnurse.org The website is a great way to begin a dialogue among all of us. Please feel welcome to post your own comments.

We want you to know that we have several documents available including a poster that you can print copies of to show your support and educate others about the National Nurse. Please contact teri@nationalnurse.info if you are interested in receiving these.

Welcome to the National Nurse Newsletter!

We would like to begin 2006 by welcoming those of you who may be receiving our newsletter for the very first time. We are pleased to introduce to you our newly formatted website. www.nationalnurse.org

The National Nurse Team has written a brief mission statement about what we expect the Office of the National Nurse will accomplish:

* the involvement of all Americans in preventive health practices;
* the augmentation of health services that are already in place;
* the establishment of volunteer national nurse teams to deliver nursing assistance and education to communities in crisis; and
* the national recognition of the nursing profession to help solve the shortage of nurses.

Teri Mills is a longtime Democracy For America community member. Her guest column on health care appears on Blog for America on Fridays and she blogs at www.nationalnurse.org.

Hundreds of Oregonians gathered on a cold, chilly Friday evening to support Nick Lampson in his quest to become the next U.S. Representative of the 22nd Congressional District of Texas. (Yes, this is the district presently held by Tom DeLay—everyone say boo all together.) DeLay has another reason to begin taking an anti-anxiety agent as it was learned this week that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to the hotly disputed Texas redistricting plan engineered in 2003 that handed Republicans six extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives under his leadership as House Majority Leader.

Nick Lampson and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
proudly sporting a University of Portland soccer sweatshirt in
recognition of the women's first place NCAA finish this month.