Our main mission is to educate and engage nurses about universal, publicly funded healthcare, and the movement to make it a reality.  In 2016, NFSP began outreach to nursing organizations and nursing schools around the state. However, most of our activities are centered around the Portland metropolitan area.

Our activities have included formal presentations at schools of nursing and professional organizations; informational tabling; lobbying at the state legislature; house parties; rallies with our giant Big Nurse puppet; providing testimony; co-sponsoring film showings; encouraging our members to take on leadership within nursing and health care reform organizations; educating ourselves about the role of nurses in the single payer movement in other states; and collaborating with our colleagues at Health Care for All Oregon (HCAO)  and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).  We are a founding organizational member of HCAO.

Read more about the history of NFSP here.

Since NFSP started, the movement for single payer health care has grown in leaps and bounds, in spite of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  In 2018, more than 30,000 Oregonians have signed HCAO’s Statement of Support for universal, publicly funded health care.  HCAO now has over 100 member organizations throughout the state. Although a single payer bill has not yet passed in Oregon,  legislation has been introduced in 2013, 2015, and 2017 – and each time, the bills have gained additional support in the state legislature.  On the national level, the movement for single payer – or Medicare for All – saw an enormous boost with the Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and there are now single payer bills in both houses of Congress, and both have gained significant numbers of co-sponsors in the past year.

And we still feel that nurses can lead the way to universal, publicly funded healthcare in Oregon!