[leslymill]

Originally Posted by teeituptom

but what are real issues to some, arent a thing to others

Especially if they believe in the "Village" of the damned, eat children, wipe their mouths of the blood, onto their sleeves, and insist they have done nothing wrong.

[Yosemite, RN]

The ANA collects dues. Lobby? Yeah, right... for their masters, hospital organizations.

The ANA, like so many RN's who go into mid to upper management of any kind, sell out the staff/floor nurses, the patients, the support staff, the families and watch out for themselves, their jobs and use phoney "nurse speak" language to paint a cheery picture of the status of U.S. healthcare, what they are doing for us.

While, no doubt, at their onset, the goals were admirable and lofty, the power, egos and the evil side of capitalism have turned them to the "dark side."

[28wkpreemieRN]

If the ANA were serious about representing the average nurse, it would be a lot cheaper to join! I know they don't have any affect on my day to day practice

[allaboutthefamily]

"The American Nurses Association (ANA) is responsible for defining the scope and standards of generic nursing practice. In 1991, ANA revised the standards of clinical nursing practice, broadening professional role expectations. This document builds on those basic standards to delineate the scope and standards of clinical practice in correctional facilities. The revised specialty standards also incorporate information from prior correctional health nursing standards."..from pen state website.

The ANA actually does have a large impact upon your practice. They write standards of practice that we can all be held accountable for in addition to those presented by the state BON. In a court of law you can be held accountable for many external standards of care, many of which you may have never read.

This being said, they shouldnt need millions of dollars a year to do so. They dont do much (relatively speaking) on the political front, and it is generally an orginazation of little power that is heavily influenced by those outside of nursing (hospitals, etc.). It can be said that the force the ANA exherts is less than those being exherted back upon it. And the worst part is that this "force" is not coming from nurses. I joined the Student ANA at my college and quit after the first meeting. Thier whole drive seemed to be to get more people to sign up and attend national student ANA conventions and pat each other on the back. The whole thing reminded my of some kind of odd fundraising chocolate bar sale. They had little knowledge of politics and the process of changing legislation through lobbying, and did not seem to care. I was only paying 30-40 bucks (per year) but they would have to make some big changes to get me to pay 200 dollars.

[faithingodmsn]

come on when is our staffing going to be safe? It is 2008

[RN Power Ohio]

[quote=allaboutthefamily;2761802]"The American Nurses Association (ANA) is responsible for defining the scope and standards of generic nursing practice. In 1991, ANA revised the standards of clinical nursing practice, broadening professional role expectations. This document builds on those basic standards to delineate the scope and standards of clinical practice in correctional facilities. The revised specialty standards also incorporate information from prior correctional health nursing standards."..from pen state website.

The ANA actually does have a large impact upon your practice. They write standards of practice that we can all be held accountable for in addition to those presented by the state BON. In a court of law you can be held accountable for many external standards of care, many of which you may have never read.]

As a professional nurse who spends much of her time researching standard of care - I can tell you there is NO standard of care for nursing. Nurses are still seen by the courts as a physician handmaiden who cannot interpret a blood pressure without a physicians assistance.

Standard of care is determined by prevailing guidelines, consensus statements, evidence and finally- what is everyone doing. The ANA and it's supportive state affiliates propose a law that we staff on the current SOC! Guess what nurses- that is empty legal language because there is no SOC for nurses-other than you should call the DR. when something changes.

There are no guidelines so what is the SOC judged by? It is judged by the final test- what is everybody doing. Everyone is staffing unsafely! So that is the current standard of care.

Thanks ANA for advocating our nursing profession right out of acceptable standards.

[boztc]

I've been crying in my beer about unsafe staffing for 30 years. I've posted on this forum before, so some of this may be repetitive, but...

As a altruistic new grad I tried to work within the system to improve patient care. Our "professional organization" (the Illinois Nurses Association) was the bargaining unit for the hospital. "The Professional Nurses Committee" was composed of staff nurses that worked with INA towards a (non-union) contract. While we were most committed to dealing with patient care issues, the INA misrepresented our position and minimized staffing concerns while negotiating for meaningless concessions like uniform codes.

I have appealed to the INA/ANA several times over the years for support, only to be consistently ignored or denied. I abandoned them long ago. It became patently obvious they will not bite the hand that feeds them, i.e. the healthcare industry and government, and prefer to "eat their own", as another poster so astutely stated.

Unable to find another organization that would agressively promote nursing interests, I fought as a patient advocate in my own practice, often much to the dismay of my employers.

The current reality is that the hospitals really don't want to spend the money to deliver quality care, they only want the public to have the perception that they are being cared for safely. This is demonstrated by such practices as scripting and "evidence based" medicine.

This perception is propagated by the public and nurses alike by the acceptance of developments such as Magnet Stauts and Clinical Pathways.

We are being progressively fragmented and de-skilled by corporate healthcare as they strive to convert Nursing from an art to a task.

What do we do? I can suggest several courses of action.

Take control of your practice. Do not relinquish independant judgement or patient advocacy. Do not allow technology or procedure to replace human interaction in the delivery of health care. Let's all slow down and give our patients their money's worth.

Most importantly, we must all join together and inform the public of the abuses that are rampant in healthcare. I have spoken at town hall meetings and to our state reps about these issues. I have written to newspapers, told friends, relatives and anyone who will listen.

I invite you all to check out the NNOC. With them, I have finally found the means to address these issues. This is a group of intelligent, compassionate nurses that are committed to taking control of our profession.

Before you go off on me, I am not union-affiliated in any way. I am not opposed to unions, but am more interested in organizing nurses for social action. The NNOC has provided me with the support and resources to work towards my goals.

[advocateforsafety]

The ANA and most state organizations like my states the TNA are in bed with the hospital administrations. They propose and legislate for weak ineffective solutions to big problems. They have done nothng to deal with satffing ratios and are currently proposing hospital constructed and run aquity systems. The evidence has shown that the hopsitals are not to be trusted. They have and will manipulate the sysytem to fit their need for profit. The only true solution ids through hard and fixed ratios as they have in California. We need real reform and the ANA has failed for years to deliver.

We don't need them to get our agenda out to the public and to get the laws in place. If every person reading this post would write their congressman and senator and state that you desire mandated ratios or whistle blower protection, or laws on madatory overtime or limits on the amount of hours a nurse can work straight or what ever your issue is then we could get something doen. You and I are more respected than any organization. We have what they wnat and need OUR VOTE.

Get involved, let your voice be heard.

[Transplant Nurse]

Brandie I made a new post with an article from Bill Moyers about how the separation of nurses (vs. uniting like the AMA) is the problem with ANA. You should read it:
http://revolutionredux.wordpress.com...re-and-nurses/
I had a probationary status last year on my license due to being efficient at my job and the repeated "gray area" (expectations) to function out of my scope and use "autonomy." I think autonomy is the word getting us all in trouble. We try to believe we are licenced advocates, but if your supervisor or a co-worker wants to stand you out it's easy. How many of you have started a med without a written order (whether it be verbal/telephoned and not transcribed it is illegal technically and practicing medicine without a license).

I'm in Indiana; there was no one to help me. I called a nurse (whom is also a attorney), she told me what to do and send her $1,000; she'll write the letter. I did it myself for free with a lesser consequence, probation for a year, no fines but permanent record and new mail came that is my new listing in the National Healthcare Registry. I feel like a 33-year old failure. I know better, but it put me in deep depression awhile - it's been rough. If you dare let the BON know you have been depressed you can count on a 5-year monitoring program (quarterly check-ups); thankfully this was over once treated and no one needed to find out about it. This is a national database for healthcare that I am now in, which publicly lists complaints/BON actions. If we were protected like the AMA this would not happen, especially as a first time issue, no one was hurt, no adverse outcome except a nurse who has left the field. None of my friends would belive the bureaocratic crap I have had to deal with. I even had a letter of explanation from the physician (2 pages long) telling them this was because of me being focused on the best for the patient.

Problem is that the nurses infilltrate into management and the hospitals' admin and now they see themselves as "white collar" nurses; they somehow believe that because they don't do potty duty that they are the powers that be. They [admin RNs] infilltrate the ANA as well as the scholars. The fact is that if you lose sight that we are at risk daily then you are out of touch and should not be governing. It's unfortunate that we are not fighting a united cause. Especially sad is that we can't get some national legislation for patient outcome/ RN satisfaction. Being a nurse is almost taboo anymore with all the bad ones out there. I wish the ANA would organize a NATIONAL pilgrimage to Washington and tell the patients what they are doing. A lot of patients and families are fed-up. We might get the streets shut down, like the "Million man march."