Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith 

LAS VEGAS -- It was 6:15 a.m., on day five of the Nevada Nurses Organizing Committee's healthcare road show, and the hotel lobby was filled with energy and with nurses in bright red scrubs.  The final full day of the road show brought huge challenges and huge rewards as the nurses made effective use of various venues for their healthcare reform educating efforts. 

We traveled on the bus from one end of Las Vegas to the other and from the gentle interactions with senior citizens to the snubbing delivered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV. With two stops before breakfast and three more to go before lunch, the RNs set course for a final healthcare report card road show day chocked full of education, outreach and advocacy. 

The morning's first stop was the Clark County Administration Building where the nurses greeted public employees arriving for work.  The RNs handed out their candidates' healthcare report cards, coffee and several dozen glazed donuts as the occasional county administrator would stop by and make sure the nurses stayed inside a pre-marked box on the sidewalk -- apparently the free speech zone as defined by those perhaps a bit worried about free speech.  We'd move dutifully inside the lines for a few moments and then drift back to our more relaxed mingling with cheerful Clark County workers. 

Undaunted by the warm fall temperatures or even those folks somehow threatened by the free flow of information offered by the nurses' healthcare for all message, the nurses forged onward to the next event with barely a moment to spare to stay on a packed schedule of stops.  Nurses don't scare easily or shy away from difficult situations.  And on this day they seemed particularly determined to close their remarkable statewide tour with energy, passion and solidarity.

LOVELOCK and ELKO, NEVADA -- How do you change minds and hearts not sure about the right direction for healthcare reform?  Ask a nurse... you change minds one at a time and with honesty, with facts and with a healthy dose of reality.  In Lovelock, Nevada, at the Cowpoke Cafe, RNs of the Nevada Nurses Organizing Committee began their third day of a road show through one of the western states that is targeted by both presidential campaigns as critical as the election draws ever closer.

But the nurses are talking about healthcare reform and how we evaluate the candidates' plans, and in the process of educating citizens, they are learning some pretty interesting things about others and maybe even about themselves.  Many of the small communities are especially sensitive to any changes that might negatively effect their already struggling economies.  But many small town residents are leery of "outsiders" who arrive with a splash and haven't yet gained the trust that can take years to develop among tough, independent people.

But the usual period of skepticism is waived for RNs.  Small town Americans are no different than their urban counterparts in the trust they feel for nurses.  So in situations where other "newcomers" might be less than welcome, nurses jump right in...  and people open up with their opinions and their problems with their own healthcare issues.

At the Cowpoke diner, RNs sat with a couple from British Columbia, Canada, who chatted about their trust of their own healthcare system and their worries about a son living near Sacramento who married an American woman and now worries about the costs of having a child or ever getting sick. The couple had an easy and friendly style and talked openly about all the advantages they feel in having access to care when they need it most without worry about costs.

A few diners had a few laughs about the coconut cream pie and the assurances of the friendly proprietor who said, "I bless the pies every morning and the calories just float away."  She seemed to be so thrilled to have her restaurant filled with the RNs' energy and good will.

By Donna Smith, community organizer

Gardnerville and Fallon, Nevada -- Whether we were in front of a busy WalMart center or in a small diner, the nurses on the road with the Nevada Nurses Organizing Committee were educating and listening to real people with real issues.  Everywhere we went, people were open about the difficulties they confront every day in accessing and affording healthcare, and many only had limited information or misinformation about the healthcare reform plans being offered by the presidential candidates.

So while the television ads and national media try to depict the nation's biggest concerns as far more abstract and removed, here were the nurses again -- down in the trenches with their patients and fellow citizens showing common sense and intelligence along with honest answers about what we can expect in the coming administration.  Nevadans told the nurses that they are a lot like other Americans in their concerns for the future.  And having access to healthcare ranks near the top of those concerns.