50 RN Response Network Volunteer Nurses Just Deployed to Puerto Rico. Here Are Some of Their Stories.
As federal relief lags, and the working people of Puerto Rico face a public health crisis of epic proportions, hundreds of skilled, volunteer union workers across the U.S. answered a call, in just a few days time, to deploy on a two-week hurricane relief mission with the AFL-CIO. We could not be more proud that with very little notice, the Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN), a disaster relief project of National Nurses United (NNU), received thousands of applications — and was quickly able to assemble a team of 50 skilled, courageous nurses to provide medical aid.
In addition to NNU, workers on the Puerto Rico relief flight, donated by United Airlines, were represented by 20 unions from 17 states, including: AFA-CWA, AFT, ALPA, AFSCME, Boilermakers, Cement Masons, CWA, IBEW, IBT, Ironworkers, IUPAT, Machinists, OPEIU, Operating Engineers, Plumbers/Pipefitters, SEIU, UAW, USW, and the Utility Workers.
Check out this moving video of RNRN volunteer nurses heading out on the AFL-CIO flight — made even more powerful by the fact that the nurses’ hotel, near Newark Liberty International Airport, was shared with recent evacuees from Puerto Rico.
So who are the nurses on that flight? Here are just a few of their voices:
Ruth Somera, RN, California: A Volunteer RN With Family in Puerto Rico
“I have two sisters [in Puerto Rico], and all my cousins,” Somera told her fellow RNRN volunteers, the morning of the flight. “We didn’t hear from my family in Puerto Rico for six days. We finally heard from my sisters, and we thought once we heard their voices that we would be okay. But what their voices told me was, ‘We’re okay, but we don’t have any money left and we’re running out of food.’ If the hurricane didn’t hurt you, all the aftermath will. I’m sad there was such a delay in help getting to the people of Puerto Rico, but nevertheless RNRN grouped together really fast, and I know they will be very grateful.”
Terry Tate, RN, Louisiana: Hurricane Katrina Survivor RN Gives Back
“Having been a survivor of Katrina, I’m eager to get in there and help these people recover. It feels like it’s been a long time since this hurricane happened, and I’m just eager to give [the people of Puerto Rico] some sense of relief,” says Terry Tate, RN. Tate wasn’t yet a nurse when Hurricane Katrina hit, forcing her to evacuate her then-home in Mississippi (she now lives in New Orleans) and seek shelter in a hotel for six weeks. She says her experience as a hurricane survivor motivated her on the path to becoming an RN, and now, knowing what it means to be displaced and receive help, this amazing volunteer nurse has deployed to Puerto Rico to give back.
Sharon Esguerra, RN, California: Celebrating 65 on Puerto Rico Mission
“You’ve got to get out of your comfort zone,” said volunteer RN Sharon Esguerra, who celebrated her 65th birthday on October 4, 2017 — by boarding the flight to Puerto Rico. Esguerra, who has been a NICU nurse for 35 years, says that the images of what people in Puerto Rico were facing in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria inspired her to sign up for the RNRN mission. She says there’s nothing she’d rather be doing to mark her 65th year, than to help those in need, and that’s certainly a reason to celebrate this dedicated RN.
We are also beyond grateful to our fellow union sisters and brothers, in other trades, who answered the AFL-CIO’s call for volunteers.
Here’s AFL-CIO Secretary/Treasurers Liz Shuler giving a “union roll call” to those on the flight. Solidarity!
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RNRN volunteer nurses have cared for thousands of patients during disaster relief and humanitarian assistance deployments that include the South Asian tsunami (2004); Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005); the Haiti earthquake (2010); Hurricane Sandy (2012); Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda (2013), the Continuing Promise 2010 and 2015 humanitarian missions with the Department of Defense, and Hurricane Harvey (2017). RNRN volunteers have also provided first aid and basic response services to hundreds of community events across the country, as well as rotating teams who assisted the water protectors in Standing Rock in 2016. RNRN is powered by NNU, the largest organization of registered nurses in the U.S.
