This content was published: August 28, 2006. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC faculty initiative takes them to Washington, D.C.
Photos and story by James Hill
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Teri Mills and Alisa Schneider are going places.
The two Portland Community College nursing faculty and registered nurses are leading a group of Oregon nurses to Capitol Hill on Sept. 6-8 to educate members of Congress about HR 4903, the National Nurse Act of 2006. According to Mills, it’s a bill that would establish the Office of the National Nurse, offering grass roots health education, teaching people of all ages how to stay healthy, prevent injuries, recognize early signs of illness, manage chronic conditions, and when to see a health care provider.
Schneider says that delivering prevention messages through mass media combined with local teams of nurses worked well when C. Everett Koop was Surgeon General.
“We need to bring that model back,” she said. “As nurses, it is our obligation to teach every American how to prevent disease.”
According to Mills, nationwide there is no infrastructure set up to mobilize large numbers of nurse volunteers. Nurses remain one of the largest healthcare work forces in the country, she added.
“Imagine if the headlines from the Katrina disaster one year ago had read, ‘the Office of the National Nurse mobilizes statewide teams of nurses to New Orleans in preparation for evacuation of the sick and elderly’,” said Mills.
Mills effort to establish a National Nurse first gained notoriety when her story was published in The New York Times as an Op-Ed piece on May 20, 2005. Since then the two have been busy in their free time traveling the country to educate nursing students, state and national organizations about the National Nurse proposal. They say their effort is now endorsed by the 1.3 million-member American Federation of Teachers and has amassed 26 co-sponsors including the Oregon Congressional delegation.
For more information, visit the Web site www.nationalnurse.org, or call 503-320-2385.
Portland Community College is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon, serving approximately 91,000 full- and part-time students. For more PCC news, please visit us on the Web at www.pcc.edu/news. PCC has three comprehensive campuses, five workforce training and education centers, and 200 community locations in the Portland metropolitan area. The PCC district encompasses a 1,500-square-mile area in northwest Oregon and offers two-year degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term training, alternative education, pre-college courses and life-long learning.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »