“Praise is empty—even insulting—without adequate protection.”

That’s how Bonnie Castillo puts it. As executive director of National Nurses United, she’s leading the fight for personal protective equipment—PPE that nurses across the country still lack.

It’s outrageous that health care providers have to fight at all for the equipment they need to protect their patients and themselves. Outrageous, but not surprising.

One of the first bills I ever introduced aimed to shield hospital workers from needlestick injuries. The nurses and paramedics who testified in support of that legislation—now part of federal law—were pleading for their lives.

Their pleas deserve to be heard, especially now.

Today is National Nurses Day, the beginning of National Nurses Week. This is the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

The best way to honor the women and men we call heroes is to treat them with dignity. That means supplying not only appropriate equipment but also sufficient housing, child care, compensation, and support.

This pandemic should teach us the importance of nursing. It’s a profession we literally can’t live without.

Andrew Romanoff

We’re doing our part to help Coloradans in need.
You can too—go to HelpColoradoNow.org.