Obama courts nurses for healthcare reform

President Obama, who spoke about the urgency of healthcare reform to the country last week, has been wooing nurses for his cause.

Speaking to the collected members of the American Nurses Association last Thursday, a day after his speech before a joint session of Congress, Obama lauded their unique position in the healthcare world. Their position on the front lines of caregiving gives nurses a lot of credibility, the president said. He also told the nurses that few people understand the need for healthcare reform as well as they do, according to CBS news reports.

“If you’re out there saying it’s time for us to act, we need to go ahead and make a change,” he said.

While views vary widely in the healthcare reform debate, many healthcare professionals, including nurses, have come out on the side of reform. Meanwhile, nurses have become a more unified group. The still-forming National Nurses United union, which is the amalgamation of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association, will be the largest single representative of nurses in the country.