What: Activist, registered nurses, and physicians are calling for a "Florence Nightingale Day Protest" against Sen. Max Baucus and his Senate Finance Committee hearings on healthcare.  The hearings include representation from health insurers—but not from the majority of the nation's RNs and MDs, who support the kind of single-payer healthcare financing proven successful in Europe, Canada, and Asia. 

When: Tuesday, May 12, 10:00 a.m. – the 189th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birthday

Where: Outside Dirksen Senate Office Building, 1st St. @ Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C.

Who: The protests are called by activist caregivers and patients from the Leadership Conference on Guaranteed Healthcare, including the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and Physicians for a National Health Program

Why: May 12 is Florence Nightingale's Birthday – an opportunity to honor her advocacy of healthcare by protesting Congressional hearings that have been stacked in favor of the big insurance companies while silencing the voices of nurses and doctors who favor guaranteed healthcare, as in a single-payer, expanded Medicare-for-all system with a single standard of quality care.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is asking nurses and doctors in the region to attend these hearings "and support the guaranteed, single-payer healthcare reforms that our nation desperately needs," said Deborah Burger, RN, CNA/NNOC co-President.