Closing thoughts...Million Nurse March....I can not believe this rhetoric

[Chellyse]

I know, I know you guys are probably tired of hearing this,but I just had to say one more thing. I went over to the site , I just could not believe the rhetoric that has came out in a short time and felt the need to vent.

Aside from the unethical politics, here we have now stepped to a new level,

Now I understand what happens to staunch supporters that become enemies of a movement that they helped to create when the leadership warps the vision...

Check this out, they put up this Phase 1 message telling everyone that the MNM is going to be a "mouthpiece" and that they want nurses to spread the word how they themselves can make the changes, then on the same page make reference to a poorly written press release that states "the MNM has the solutions to the nursing shortage" all the while never lending a single reasonable solution, not one.They say the understand the task to solve the nursing shortage? This is so sad. I am going to post this and then never look back...

Phase One:

Get a brochure into the hands of every nurse and potential client/family member. These brochures outline the problems of understaffing, what needs to be done to correct the problem and what the nurse/client/family can do to assist in this mission. (These brochures do not contain what MNM can do, but what the nurse/client/family can do. What MNM can do is inform, NOT change. The MNM can be a motivator of change and a mouthpiece but MNM does not write the laws nor will the MNM become a lobbying group.)

Post flyers in as many public places as legally possible. (These flyers need to be approved by the Media CoOrdinator to ensure that they cover the correct areas and support ideas and activities that are approved by the MNM.)

We have set up a Speakers Bureau, now we need to get volunteers and then discuss what the speeches should encompass, and where/who to contact to get 'hired' to speak. (Keep in mind that the speeches would not be what the MNM can do for you, but rather to give the information to teach the public what they need to do.)

We will be sending out Press Releases to every conceivable media source to inform them of the need for change and the manner in which to bring about this change. These releases will be written by the Media CoOrdinator. The releases will be informative about the problems faced, with short examples of how the problem affects the nurse/client/family. The releases will NOT focus on the MNM as a vehicle for making this change, but on how the community at large can make change possible. Releases will NOT say, send your money to the MNM so they can fix it, but rather send donations so that MNM can inform more and more clients/families of the problems and the types of solutions needed for them to fix the problems themselves.

Encourage everyone to visit the General Store and make a purchase to help with the massive costs of putting on this march.

PRESS RELEASE

"THE MILLION NURSE MARCH: UNITED NURSES CHANGING HEALTHCARE...use for introducing the mnm, press releases, handouts to explain our cause, misc. mnm articles.

The Million Nurse March, slated for May 10-11, 2002 in Washington D.C. will be a culmination of one and a half years of grassroots efforts by committed nurses to affect needed changes in healthcare (http://millionnursemarch.org). The nursing profession, faced with mandatory overtime, increasing nurse-to-patient ratios and short staffing, continues to loose its constituency at alarming numbers. Reversing this trend will, arguably, be the most difficult task ever undertaken in healthcare. We at the Million Nurse March understand this task; we are nursing, and each of us knows first-hand the dangers faced by nurses in their practice. Our goal, however, is simple: unity. Of all the nursing trends that seem to come and go, unity has always been the missing link. Perhaps, this is why we perpetually struggle with the same issues, decade after decade. The time has come, without mistake, for the nursing profession to speak as one voice. We are the largest group of healthcare professionals, and our ranks number well over 1 million. We have no choice but to protect our interests in providing safe and quality care to ourselves and the patients for whom we care. This is priority number one.

The Million Nurse March is dedicated to open dialogue and frank discussion of working conditions amongst healthcare professionals and the general public. It is particularly important that nurses build this honest rapport with the public as they will, undoubtedly, be our most powerful ally in the battle to change dangerous healthcare practices. Medical consumers are quite savv, and naturally want the best care for themselves and their families. Our nation’s aging baby-boomer population will demand quality healthcare, and, in part, those demands will focus much needed attention at nursing issues that inhibit good patient care. We need to use a bit of preventative medicine and actively try to overt this crisis by vividly representing the issues, to the public, that nurses face everyday.

During this particular nursing shortage, the government has primarily focused on recruitment, not retention. While recruitment is a long-term necessity, retention of nurses remains healthcare’s current bottom line. After years of schooling and training, nursing graduates will run into the same barriers to quality delivery of care currently plaguing the profession; therefore, the cycle of nursing shortages inevitably continues. Members of the Million Nurse March have, and will fight for necessary changes in healthcare practices, so nurses who have left the profession will desire to return, and practicing nurses will desire to stay.

There has been a wake-up call in nursing, even those once fearful of speaking-up about the dangers in nursing, are now doing so because of the intolerable treatment. Unfortunately, sometimes speaking-up leads to reprimands. Often times, this reprimand comes from individuals, such as administrators, who have absolutely no experience at the bedside. How did this happen to our profession? Perhaps, the wake-up call was a long-time in coming, but it has awakened the entire country. Nurses have spoken more loudly with their mass exodus from the profession than from actual deeds or actions, this has labeled nurses as complacent and submissive. If nursing is to change this image of subordination, the wake-up call will have to reach everyone, including administrators and lawmakers alike.

The bottom line of the current nursing shortage is working conditions. Nurses are leaving hospitals, nursing homes and clinics because they fear medical errors related to harried environments. Long exposure to such conditions makes nurses feel hopeless, and helpless to improve their situation, leaving the bedside nurse to ask, “who will be my advocate”? The Million Nurse March is a true grassroots endeavor for nurses, by nurses. We are the voice of the bedside nurse, indeed, we are founded by nurses familiar with bedside practice. On May 10th and May 11th of 2002, Washington D.C. will host the voices of one million unified nurses, proving to ourselves and the healthcare industry, nurses have the power of numbers and the power to unite.

[-jt]

save your money. I can tell you that for free.... check out the UANs plan:

http://www.nysna.org/PGA/LEG/solutions.htm

http://www.nysna.org/PGA/LEG/POINTS/staffing2001.htm

http://www.nysna.org/PGA/LEG/POINTS/SHORTAGE2001.HTM