Dear UAN e-Activist,

To help protect nurses from the thousands of back and other injuries they suffer on the job every year, UAN and the Michigan Nurses Association worked with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) on the Nurse and Patient Safety & Protection Act of 2006 (H.R. 6182).  Introduced on Sept. 26, this federal safe patient handling measure will give direct care nurses the protection they need to safely treat and move patients without running the risk of debilitating injuries.

We need your help to build support for this important piece of legislation. 

First, if you are a nurse who was injured due to unsafe moving and lifting on the job, help us put faces to the countless injury statistics involving nurses by sharing your story with UAN.  UAN will contact you to potentially use these stories with Congress and the media as we lobby for this legislation.  Please email UANInfo@UANNurse.org with the following information:

• Your name, address (including zip code), and phone number
• How long you have been a nurse
• Your hospital, location, and type of unit in which you work
• Indicate if you have been injured because of lifting a patient, how many times and provide specific examples
• Your opinion on the need for federal safe handling legislation 

Second, stay tuned to www.UANNurse.org and your UAN e-Activist system as we approach the new session of Congress in January 2007—and begin our push for co-sponsors to work with Rep. Conyers on this critical bill.

To learn more about the issue of safe patient handling and H.R. 6182, please go to www.uannurse.org/legislative/handling.html

Thank you for your support!