Nursing Advocacy Blogs by Patricia Ford-Roegner

Tonight, we honored a true leader and man of honor, President Joe Biden. His accomplishments are so numerous and yet he remains a humble servant of the people. His personal losses have been unimaginable but instead of being beaten down, he rose like the Phoenix to challenge the status quo. 

As a young woman lobbyist for the American Nurses Association in Washington, D.C. I knew what it was like not to be heard, to have to elbow my way to the power tables. Meeting with Joe Biden was a breath of fresh air, his warmth was palpable, and he listened to what I had to say. He knew what nurses did and how valuable they were, especially after the tragedy for his family. 

He was hands on the Violence Against Women Act, often attending meetings with his staff. He is the real deal. His leadership around the world has been key to keeping the lid on more violence. His compassion knows no bounds. 

Tonight, so much like him to say: “I love this job, but I love this country more” as to his willingness to step aside and throw his full support behind Kamala Harris. “Together we can do anything” is his motto and the crowd responded “USA, USA, USA.”

Real men: Joe Biden, Tim Walz, Josh Shapiro, Cory Booker, John McCain, my mentor John Lewis, my father Harry Ford and my best friend and husband Russ Roegner. Thank God for these guys!

Following a lovely cruise in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest and a great visit to Oregon’s pristine coast with our beautiful, kind and brilliant daughter, Dr. Amber, I realized that while I was gone the political world had been hit with the force of a Category 5 hurricane-but in a positive way.

For the first time in a very long time, I felt hopeful for our country, our daughter’s future and that of our hard-working nieces and nephews and their children ages 2-28. My feeling was—could I call it joy?

The Biden-Harris Administration has accomplished so much despite the MAGA controlled House of Representatives, but the constant negative drumroll of the Trump machine had been wearing me down. For the first time in my life, I was experiencing panic attacks when I thought for a moment that convicted criminal could be president again. 

Lest we forget during the Trump era public health nurses and doctors feared for their lives, enduring ridicule for believing in science-based evidence. We lost a generation of leaders. Nurses at the bedside were left without the necessary equipment to protect themselves and their patients. And the public were fed lies about cures for COVID-19 by the very leader of our nation.

At first after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took charge, I saw a sea change of good health policy. But my elation was quickly deflated by the now right-wing Supreme Court’s actions on women’s health, voting rights and environmental protections.

On NIGHT TWO of the DNC Michele and Barack Obama brought back the contagious power of hope.  As Michelle said, the atmosphere is “Wonderfully magical.” She, the reluctant warrior, was magnificent. Reminding us to get off our buns and “do something.”

Former President Obama reminded us that the danger remains, the stakes are very high, but we can do this. He cautioned us to get ready for the onslaught of lies, distortions and heinous behaviors that will target the Harris-Walz ticket. Disagree without being disagreeable was his message. The people of this nation are tired of the divide.   

I intend to do all I can for my country and the professions I love. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines. This is the Superbowl of policy happenings. I find solace in the words of the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration. On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman (so wise beyond her years) told us:

“When the day comes, we step out of the shade, Aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”

One lucky couple are we. Moved to Cape May, NJ for 7 years after retiring. So enjoyed our Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ). Smart, sharp and quick witted. He saved thousands of lives as he stuck to the CDC guidelines on COVID-19. What he endured, JMJ as he would say. We all printed his famous words on our fundraising t-shirts. “Don’t be a knucklehead.” His answer to the anti-vaccers.

Our next move was to suburban Philadelphia, my husband’s turf (I am a Philly girl through and through, think Lisa Ann Walter on the successful television series Abbott Elementary). Yo, Philly.

We helped elect the smartest and most beloved, Governor Josh Shapiro. I have to say I was so torn when he was under consideration for the Vice-Presidential candidate. He would have been brilliant, but we would have lost our much-needed new leader. His day will come. You saw his fiery speech on Wednesday night. 

Day 3 at the DNC belonged to Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz. I know our friends in Edina, MN are beside themselves with delight at this national prominence.  My consulting partner’s wife’s family is in 7thheaven. 

This plain-spoken man means business when he says” you can sleep when you are dead, we need action now.” His son in the audience stole the show as his dad accepted the Vice-Presidential nomination. There is something reminiscent of the average person’s dad or granddad about Tim. The term “comforting” comes to my mind at a time when we need assurance not scorn.

Having served in the Clinton Administration it was great to see the former president exuding his charm and wisdom as he did so well while he took down opponents. 

Bill Clinton understood and supported nursing values and goals.  He appointed almost a dozen nurses to his administration because he knew they would work hard and deliver. He did so in honor of his mom, Virginia Clinton Kelley, a nurse anesthetist for many years. Oddly enough she passed away on a peaceful January 6th (1994). What a contrast.

And then came Oprah, what a night!

Night 4 of the DNC lived up to its expectations in so many ways. On behalf of we the people, Vice-President Kamala Harris accepted the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for president of these United States. Her story is our story, we all share common bonds. Showing strength, wisdom and common-sense Kamala Harris pledged a new way forward for our nation on all the values and issues we as nurses hold dear. 

It is now in our court as VP candidate Coach Waltz would say. Will we meet the challenge? I know I won’t go back. When we fight, we win. We must fight like hell. 

Poet Maya Angelou challenged us to do the right thing: “You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I will rise”

Will we rise together? 

In 1975 a small group of women sat around a card table at the YWCA in metro Atlanta. Led by nationally recognized Susan May from the YWCA, we discussed how we could address domestic violence in the city following the new movement at the national level. We decided to hold weekly session and invite women survivors to talk to us. Young and very naïve, we advertised. I went on public radio believe it or not and said where and when. Many callers were emphatic but like today a few were morons that told me to butt out and didn’t I know the man husband was the master over the woman. A week later I received a threat in my personal mailbox. We stopped public advertising.

We waited at the YWCA one fateful night. At first it seemed a bust, but then one woman came through the door and told us her story of years of abuse by her husband in what was then rural Gwinnett County. It happened when she was pregnant and when she wasn’t. She had turned to her minister only to find he sent her home. Now, her son was her protector, and her husband knew he had lost the battle. She said her son was a better shot than her husband. She came to just let us know her story. With tears in our eyes, we watched her walk away. It sunk in this was real life.

We heard stories from more women about being locked in a closet, finding their pet shot dead, having no way out with their man controlling all money. Women were fighting to be able to have credit cards in their own names in those days. The men were prominent lawyers, athletes and just everything in between. The common theme among all the women was how utterly alone and afraid they felt. No one could understand or walk in their shoes. Often, they didn’t tell anyone out of shame. Our goal after these meetings was to build a shelter where they would never be alone again, and they would be believed. We started with just one bed. So, when I saw Justice Thomas the one vote man decide that abusers could have guns, I wanted to scream. He and his co-conspirator wife had my contempt before this ruling but now he has my deepest anger. How dare he? 

Well, well the Darth Vader of current politics shows his true face. RFK, Jr. joined the Evil Empire. Not really a surprise as His Royal Weirdness is so like the other strange guys. But it is profoundly sad for the memory of the 1960s’ warrior for justice, Robert F. Kennedy. 

In 1968 I had just started setting up a table for volunteer sign up at my university as the college coordinator for the Robert Kennedy campaign when I heard the news that a hero of the people had been assassinated.

In tears, I tried to go to a local church only to find the doors locked. I sat on the steps trying to take this all in. The weight of the war in Vietnam, the recent assassination of the incredible leader for equality, Martin Luther King Jr., the former assassination of JFK, campus unrest, my nurse friends reporting back from the bloody war tents, and the changing cultural environment, this latest tragedy just seemed too much.

I know my Robert Kennedy would have had the right words for Junior. He was so brilliant. As he said on June 6,1966:

“Each time a man (woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” 

And in his writings in 1964:

“There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past which, in fact never existed.” 

Like the real RFK of the 60s: Kamala Harris will stand up for the people. Kamala Harris charts a new way forward. We will not go back!

And finally, the reassuring words of MLK; 

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

Pat Ford-Roegner RN, MSW FAAN Nurses for Harris/Walz   

With the Pennsylvania Primary election in the books, we progressive nurses turn our eyes toward the November election with much work to be done. The turnout in Pa was well below what we had hoped for despite celebrating that the former president’s underperformance was well beyond expectations.

Being labeled a battleground state is a heavy lift. To prepare myself, I turned to the Smithsonian Institute to review the history of the Amazonian women warriors. I watched the 2022 movie, The Woman King, which is based on a true story of women in West Africa leading the charge. I stand ready for the challenge.

During the 2020 election, I joined fellow grassroots nurses to make sure the anti-public health president wasn’t re-elected. We were appalled by the Maga attack on the science and medical knowledge that undergirds our number #1 rated trusted profession.

In 2024, Nurses for America find us fighting the same backwards-leaning followers of a man accused of rape and so many other crimes. The assault on women’s reproductive rights is almost unbearable to those of us who fought so hard in the 1970s to protect women’s health. The dire and deadly consequences of overturning a 50-year law are becoming more evident. 

Nursing care was making some progress for those left behind. Now where are we. State actions against IVF and abortion are deepening inequities in access and increasing racial disparities in maternal health.

Our nurse member of Congress, Lauren Underwood, made improving multi-racial maternal health her number one priority. Her collection of bills, called Momibus, addresses the many issues facing real women of today. These archaic state laws seek to undermine the slow progress we have made to improve maternal health care.

One of the simplest and scariest but almost feminist movies, I ever saw was Stephen King’s 1976 movie, Carrie. If you agree that movie was scary you should read Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump administration. 

This draconian document is terrifying. It declares abortion services are not health care. It suggest dismantling the Centers for Disease Control (which is under review for changes to meet future pandemics) for all the wrong reasons. It is worth a read, but I advise watching your blood pressure when you read it. Here’s a snippet:

“The Family Agenda. The Secretary’s antidiscrimination policy statements should never conflate sex with gender identity or sexual orientation. Rather, the Secretary should proudly state that men and women are biological realities that are crucial to the advancement of life sciences and medical care and that married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.”

There are days I want to be like the bombastic actor-comedian Phil Murray. Screaming at the top of my lungs with my eyes bulging as he did in many iconic movies, including Ground Hog Day. One of my favorite quotes of his is:  "Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it most never use it."

Common sense is in short supply these days. Nurses are a tenacious group, and we will fight back. We will educate everyone in my state and other battleground states who are willing to listen to us, using many platforms and good old door knocking.

As my car’s bumper sticker says, “we won’t go back.” There is so much at stake. Our patients depend on us.

Pat Ford-Roegner RN, MSW, FAAN Core Member Nurses for America

Brief Bio:

Pat Ford-Roegner is an award-winning registered nurse with over forty years’ experience. She brings clinical, policy, government affairs and executive expertise to the table.

I am in shock; I agree with something Trump said. “They are coming to get you.” Yes, if by “they” he meant his right-wing contingent is coming after women, their partners, teens who are struggling with themselves and the parents who love them, people of color and their supporters, librarians and teachers, health providers, Medicaid insured individuals, performers who make a living as drag queens, the entire LBGT + community, police officers who defended the Capitol (including right wing legislators), immigrants and their families fleeing abuse and poverty, and even members of our military. Oh yes, they are coming to get Us. Fueled by hatred in words and deeds, Maga followers convince themselves they are the one wronged like their leader-a sad, angry and pathetic weakling of a man who preys on women and blames everyone else for his mistakes as he has done all his life. As Chris Christie said (better late than never) maybe Trump and his followers should look hard in that mirror just like wicked Queen in Snow White and face reality before it is too late for all of us. 

Patricia Ford Roegner RN Glen Mills, Pa

At Philly Catholic schools in the ‘60s, we had little opportunity to play women’s sports. My bike and the Jerry Blavat dances were my exercise. Many young women didn’t play sports for cultural reasons, lack of encouragement, or fear of menstrual issues.

But in 1996 the U.S. Women’s Soccer team took the Olympic gold; Michelle Akers and Briana Scurry were my “sheroes.” This week, LSU’s Angel Reese and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark renewed their head-to-head matchup. My daughter became a high school cross country and track star. 

The difference over the intervening years? The 1972 enactment of Title IX (ensuring equal treatment of male and female students in educational settings, including sports), the 1976 founding of the National Women’s Health Network (creating the women’s health movement, which among other things helped us gain insurance coverage for family planning), and the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision in 1973 (assuring that women could make their own health decisions).

The backlash against women’s control of their own health and women’s progress in sports, the military, politics, and life in general is very disheartening – a reminder that the fight for fairness and equity is far from over. 

As a long-time registered nurse and active leader within the profession, I have always been uncomfortable that personal care facilities are generically referred to as “nursing homes.”  To me, this creates a public expectation that licensed RNs would comprise the majority of the staff in these facilities. 

Sadly, for both federal regulatory and societal issues this is not the case. No doubt, the vasty majority of those providing 24/7 care for many of our most frail Americans – particularly older people – are conscientious, caring people. But they have not received the same comprehensive medical education as a nurse. They are not prepared to detect and address conditions that could have life-or-death consequences.

I applaud the Biden Administration for its new efforts to create minimal federal standards of care in these residences – most notably having one RN on staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with each resident getting 3.5 hours of nurse-provided care per week. 

The proposed regulations also include pay increases for home care workers and a crackdown on misuse by facility managers of the Medicare and Medicaid funds that pay for a large share of nursing home care. 

It is important to remember that assisted living facilities – whose residents generally require less hands-on medical attention that nursing home patients – are state regulated, with staffing standards varying between states. So the new federal regulations will not apply there, and families should carefully investigate the local rules covering care of their loved ones. To find out the requirements in your state, review the 2022 State Assisted Living Regulatory Summaries, maintained by the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living.

When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced these changes, they were immediately condemned by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and nursing home industry lobbyists, who said staffing shortages, rising costs and pandemic-related closures would make it too difficult to comply. However, Rep. Anna Eshoo(D-CA) declared, “I don’t know about you but if I was in a nursing home, I would want these standards.”

Nursing homes and hospice care not only are “God’s waiting room,” but also are highly profitable for corporations and private equity firms.   Genesis Health Care, the largest nursing home company, has annual revenue of $5.8 billion and over 68,000 employees. As of 2021, the U.S. nursing home industry brought in $149 billion annually and employed over 1.6 million people. Surely, such a huge profit machine industry can afford to adopt these minimal requirements for patient care and safety. 

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