About Us

Nurses of Pennsylvania is a non-profit organization of, by and for nurses focused on improving the bedside care nurses provide. PA nurses work in cities and small towns, at large hospitals, in nursing homes and more—tied together by their commitment to their patients, their families and their communities. United for quality care, Nurses of Pennsylvania is focused on leading the state to a healthcare system that gives nurses a seat at the decision-making table and puts patients first.

Our Mission

Nurses of Pennsylvania is an organization of, by and for nurses focused on improving the bedside care nurses provide. Pennsylvania nurses work in cities and small towns, at large hospitals, in nursing homes and more—yet we’re tied together by our patients, our families, and communities. We want to lead the state to a healthcare system that puts patients first.

Why Now

As nurses, we are used to trying to do more with less, but there is only so far we can all stretch. Giant corporations and multi-million-dollar executives are too often calling all the shots in healthcare, and they are focused on profits over patients. When your health is on the line, it is not the time to cut corners and pinch pennies.

How to get involved

Because of the nature of the problems we are fighting, particularly unsafe staffing, we believe it is critical to build a movement where nurses can take small actions when we can in ways that allow thousands of us taking a small action to make a huge collective action. At the same time, we work to create as many opportunities as possible for nurses with the time or energy to help power our advocacy in bigger ways, or for those who don’t have either but are too fired up they find a way anyways, to help lead our organizing in bigger ways. The first step is to take take action on any form on our site to started getting updates about ways to take action with us.

How We Work

Nurses of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit governed by a volunteer board of nurses and healthcare advocates who steer the overall direction of our work. Our nurse board drives day-to-day decisions and leads the fight for safe staffing and better patient care, with input from the thousands of nurses participating in our movement.

Our Board of Directors:

Eileen Kelly RN

Eileen lives in rural Northwest PA, and she has been a registered nurse for 25 years working in Med-Surg, ICU, and Dialysis and is now working as a per diem nurse. Eileen first got involved with Nurses of PA helping to plan our first Safe Staffing Summit in the summer of 2018. As a newly elected board member, Eileen is excited to focus on growing and funding the Nurses of PA movement, and passing legislation for safe patient limits!

Claudia Crane RN

Claudia started out as a nurse’s aide in 1970. Graduating from an ADN program in 1974, she worked in med-surg, critical care, and dialysis, finishing her career running an outpatient clinic. Claudia was already retired in 2018 when she first heard about us and saw a chance to help the next generation of nurses address unsafe staffing—something she felt powerless to do during her decades at the bedside. Since then, Claudia has been active in helping to lead our work in everything from reviewing the research on safe staffing to legislative visits to calling other nurses and more. As a newly elected board member, Claudia is excited to continue to do all she can with her colleagues in Nurses of PA to achieve a voice for nurses!

Jake Reese, RN at Regional Hospital:

Jake Reese is a registered nurse at Regional Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He currently works in the Cardiac Telemetry unit where patients are acutely ill and require continuous cardiac monitoring. Jake is a founding member of Nurses of Pennsylvania and currently serves as our Secretary-Treasurer.

Alex Rendina RN

Alex Rendina RN, MSN, CMSRN has been practicing all areas of nursing in several different Pennsylvania hospitals. He has served on the Nurse Alliance of SEIU Pennsylvania and has been working towards legislation to improve nursing ratios for all Pennsylvania nurses in all areas of healthcare from long-term care to acute care. Currently, he has been working as an assistant professor of nursing preparing future nurses to fulfill the current and continuing shortage in professional nursing care.

Antoinette Kraus, Executive Director of Public Health Access Network:

Antoinette Kraus currently serves as founding Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN). Since joining PHAN in 2008 Kraus has helped grow the Pennsylvania Health Access Network into the state’s largest consumer-driven organization.

attribution=setup_tool page_id="1908656542744596" theme_color="#f9be00" logged_in_greeting="Hi! Are you ready to join our movement for safe patient limits? Any questions?" logged_out_greeting="Hi! Are you ready to join our movement for safe patient limits? Any questions?">