The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is Oregon’s largest nursing organization.
We are a professional association and labor union which represents more than 15,000 nurses and allied health care workers throughout the state. Our members provide critical health services in nearly every health care setting and have chosen the following
priorities for Oregon's 2022 state legislative session.
If you have questions or want to get involved, please contact ONA Political Organizer Russell Lum at Lum@OregonRN.org
Top Nursing & Public Health Priorities for ONA
Addressing Oregon's Nurse Staffing Crisis
Nurses and patients are facing an unprecedented staffing crisis which affects every Oregonian's health care. We support innovative solutions at the local and state level including expanding the Oregon Wellness Program to provide free mental health support
for frontline nurses; extending emergency nurse licensure to give temporary nurses more time to practice before choosing Oregon as a home; allowing third parties to pay nurse license fees; creating a nurse internship program to give nursing students
more practice time; and creating a formal nursing workforce group within the Oregon Health Authority to study and advance other long-term nurse staffing solutions.
Expanding Health Care Access: Public Option
In 2022, the Oregon Health Authority will make recommendations on how to create a public option —a state health insurance plan—to meet the needs of Oregonians for whom private marketplace plans are out of reach due to cost. ONA, and the Public Option
Coalition to which we belong, will work to ensure Oregon's public option lowers health care costs, is widely available, and prioritizes equity.
Treating Racism as a Public Health Crisis
The impacts of racism on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are well documented and indisputable. They are widely accepted as social, economic, and political determinants of health, impacting physical and mental health and leading to disparate
health outcomes; excessive pain and suffering; and dramatic quality-of-life and economic implications. In 2021, ONA helped drive legislation to name racism a public health crisis and begin fixing Oregon’s discriminatory health care system. While a
resolution acknowledging racism as a public health crisis passed, the programs necessary to treat the crisis did not.
We are returning in 2022 to win funding for pilot mobile health teams to increase access and provide responsive care, build in reporting and analysis structures to ascertain appropriateness of program expansion, and establish task forces to be populated
by community-of-color leaders which will inform ongoing, equitable health strategies
Equal Pay for Workers: Farmworker Overtime
We stand for strong, equitable labor standards which protect all workers' rights. For too long, agricultural workers have been excluded from receiving overtime pay as well as being excluded from other federal labor laws. Farmworkers deserve to be paid
for their hard work just like everyone else.
Further, they are an important part of community health, in being a linkage to people's nutrition, despite themselves working in what are often unsafe, unhealthy conditions. Through a multi-year phased-in plan, we will ensure farmworkers finally
receive the pay they deserve.
Keeping Oregonians Cool
Climate change has created new public health crises which disproportionately impact vulnerable Oregonians. But health crises from heat are largely preventable. By putting tools in place now we can keep Oregon families healthy in the future. ONA supports two bills designed to keep Oregonians cool and prevent illnesses and death during high-heat emergencies.
One bill helps Oregon families weather high-heat emergencies by allowing OHA to fund heat pumps for homes in need. A second bill protects renters' right to place and use window air conditioning units and requires apartment buildings' common rooms to be available as cooling centers for tenants during high-heat emergencies.
