The Nurse Alliance of SEIU’s Summit on Nurse Leadership: Taking Action to Create Healthier Communities has filled two days with policy, advocacy, and energy. Yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed the nurses, telling them that nurses had been behind every major turning point in improving our healthcare system in our nation’s history.
The conference concluded today with more than 400 nurses heading to Capitol Hill to protect Medicaid and Medicare funding. Nurses delivered their handwritten letters to members of Congress detailing the painful impact additional cuts to our healthcare would have on their patients and on job creation.
“The women I care for are at especially high risk of delivering pre-term babies with very low birth weight,” wrote Beth Burgess, a nurse from North Providence, Rhode Island. “Additional cuts in Medicaid or Medicare would tragically impact the outcome of such pregnancies. It is time to look for other ways to balance the budget.”
