ANA & You: History & Current Vision

-jt · Apr 21, 2001

Originally posted by wildtime88:
individual travel expenses/reimbursements, perks, benefits, and possible bonuses?

I am a staff nurse and a member of the ANA. I pay $47 a month to my state association in union dues - from which $85 a year goes to the ANA. I am also an elected officer of the Nurses Executive Council of my bargaining unit at my hospital & participated in the Nurses Legislative Day that my state association held at our Capitol last month. It cost me $325 in travel & hotel room. I was fully reimbursed every penny. Had I purchased food, other than the free meals that were provided, I would have been reimbursed for that too. For this trip, the reimbursement limit was $500. Our association is very careful about how it spends our money. I do not begrudge NYSNA or the ANA their nice offices, travel reimbursements, other "perks" or anything else. They are not out vacationing on some archipelago with our money. They are working hard for us & it's money well spent. In fact, purchasing our own building for NYSNA operations is something we are very proud of having been able to do. Nobody has free reign with our money. I see how the nurse reps have to watch every penny they spend & account for it & always have to go with the least expensive way because it will be scrutinized. They have limits on what they can spend. I feel a little sorry for our nurse reps. Most of the staff RNs they represent in NYC earn higher salaries than the nurse reps who negotiate those salaries for us.

-jt · Apr 21, 2001

Originally posted by Hardknox:
If ANA is the answer to our problems, how come California and Massachusetts have disaffilliated?

oh that makes a lot of sense. 2 groups chose to disaffiliate for their own agendas & that means the ANA is worthless? lol. ok... so following that logic....if leaving the ANA is the answer, then how come the other 52 consituent members remain affiliated?

PS

California is STILL in the ANA. Only California's bedside nurses left it & now have an affiliation with the Steelworkers Union.

-jt · Apr 21, 2001

Originally posted by wildtime88:
Level2Trauma,If you can not handle the possible truth and wish to blindly follow any organization with out asking questions, then that is your choice. [Q]

as members we dont have to ask the question. the answer is provided to us every year. We each receive the financial statement breakdowns in the mail.
And you can get more info from the website or just call them up.

-jt · Apr 21, 2001

Originally posted by wildtime88:
In a way it might be the best thing for the nursing profession for the ANA to just go away and a new and improved or dedicated hospital nurses association to be formed. .

well thats not going to happen so the alternative is you may just have to ignore us. New nurse associations can be formed by whoever wants to form them but that does not mean that the ANA is going to cease to exist.

Feel free to join whatever association you want to create. There are 2 million non-ANA nurses out there so the grapes are ripe for picking. Create your association, organize the unorganized & leave the rest of us alone. It would be nice if people stopped wasting so much time, effort & energy complaining & critisizing, rather just ignored the group they dont like & started at least doing something to fix the problems theyre griping about. Just go & do it. What does the ANA have to do with it? Who's stopping you from making whatever association you want to make? Start in the South. Maybe even Texas. Most of those nurses dont belong to the ANA so you wont even have to deal with raiding state associations to build up your membership numbers. Many of those nurses need education on becoming active & united & you could provide a needed service. So why waste time here complaining about the "deficiencies" of the ANA. Forget the ANA. Get up & get moving. Put your money where your mouth is & do it better.

How about you just act like we dont exist. Make a new one or just join the association of your choice & get busy. Pretend we're not here. Forget about what we're doing & do what you want to do however you want to do it. Maybe some day our group & whatever group you create can work together on something for the common good like the ANA & CNA have in the recent past, or like the ANA & the AFL-CIO are now. But dont expect us to give up what we're doing & disappear just because youve shown up on the scene.

-jt · Apr 21, 2001

Originally posted by wildtime88:
I agree that a fair salary should be paid even up to 50,000 dollars a year for the ANA chair person. I also agree that her travel, lodging, and meals should be paid for while traveling on business, but only couch airline fair, a modest room and not a suite, and modest meal costs. I do not believe a luxury rental car should be included [q]

I think the president of my association should have a room of large enough size so that work can be done. And since she is traveling for my business, business class is fine with me. She has to eat while she is working & reasonable meal allowances for the duration should be no problem with anyone. Not only should she have a car at her disposal in the cities she travels to on our business, she should also have a driver (chauffeur!) who knows his way around & is available at a moments notice. And fyi, I do not think offering the president or any other official of the ANA $50K/yr - a salary that is well below the starting salary of a new grad ADN ANA member in NYC - could be called "a fair salary" for the work they do as leaders of our national professional association. And since Im the one who is a member, I get to have the last word on it all with my vote. ; )

-jt · Apr 21, 2001

Originally posted by natalie:
Since 93% of America's nurses have never joined the ANA, exactly where do all you naysayers expect ANA's powerbase to come from?
I'll say it again. There are 2.6 MILLION RN's in this country. There are 180 THOUSAND members of the ANA.

yet even still, the ANA IS powerful & has accomplished so much. In spite of the fact that it consists of only 7% of the nations nurses, it has the recognition & respect in Washington DC & with the powers-that-be & is considered THE voice of the nursing profession on the national level. And it gets the job done. Just look at what happened the day the ANAs online staffing survey was released recently - over 100 TV News stations immediately reported on it & its been in the news repeatedly since then. Thats just one example of how when the ANA speaks, the powers-that-be pay attention.

Its really incredible when you look at it... that this organization which has only 7% of the profession supporting it has been able to do so much & be the powerhouse that it is. And it says something about the strength of its membership.

I think much of the nay-sayers criticism comes from jealousy.

Non-members may like to say that the ANA does not represent them but it does... everytime our leadership goes before a US Senate panel or speaks to a TV news reporter or media journalist & tells them about our working conditions, our workplace safety risks, our mass exodus out of the profession, it IS speaking for all nurses - not just the dues-paying members. And when our leadership is writing legislation & lobbys Congress to improve our working conditions, to protect us from retaliation for reporting pt safety concerns, to force our employers to purchase risk-free needle devices, to provide safe & adequate lifting equipment & safe staffing guidelines, to eliminate mandatory overtime, to allow reimbursement for Nurse Anesthetists, to allow AP RNs to become OR First Assistants etc, it is doing so for ALL nurses - not just ANA members. And when their legislations on our behalf are made into law, the laws cover & apply to ALL 2.6 million nurses - not just the 180,000 who supported the fight. And ALL nurses benefit, not just you & me & the others who paid to fund the effort. ALL nurses.

So yes, even though they actually have only 180,000 dues-paying members making it work, the ANA actually DOES represent & speak for ALL 2.6 million nurses in this country.

ps

besides the free subscriptions & everything else already listed as "perks", for our $85/yr dues we get all of the above & much much more. We get the benefits of the American Nurses Association working for us.

If anyone doesnt know what that means, check out the website.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Apr 21, 2001

Thanks, Christina. You so elequently stated my feelings always much better than I could ever do myself.

Julie (JT)your response to each of wildtimes points is right on the mark.

Tim, Level 2 and Jenny: glad to know others are working on the professions behalf. I would like to post more than I do, but fibromyalgia of the forearms has sigificanly flared and btwn writing at work, cut n paste from ANA sites...best I can do.

The wheel doesn't need reinvention, just a little strengthening, spit and polish.

[This message has been edited by NRSKarenRN (edited April 21, 2001).]

natalie · Apr 21, 2001

jt,

I also believe it's pretty amazing what ANA has done over the years, given the pathetic lack of membership.

I think a good part of the wrath towards ANA is directed from nurses who work in states with very weak nursing associations. Or states that have had particularly deplorable nurse/patient ratios, as California. It's too bad ANA, as a national voice, was targeted, instead of the state association.

Disaffiliation is not the solution. Working towards a strong state association is perhaps the answer. Although in some states, like Florida, it is mindboggling as to how these staff nurses can take back their state association or change the socio-political environment of a state that hates unions.

State by state strength will make ANA strong. Not the other way around.

MollyJ · Apr 21, 2001

I am a dues paying, but not very active ANA member and my renewal right now sits on my bill pile. Sooner or later I will suck up the bucks and send them in because ANA is the only general nursing representative. It is disappointing to me that ANA doesn't represent 40 or even 50 percent of nursing but it is not going to for a variety of reasons. Some nurses will put their money and their time into specialty nursing organizations (ACCN, ENA). Some nurses are in it to make a living and raise their families and they see those dues as one more expense they don't need. They may also see political issues as far removed from them. This laid back attitude has always diluted the potential strength of nursing. Some nurses adamantly oppose the ANA, as we have seen here. But, Wildtime, I cannot accept your theses that a nursing organization that doesn't represent a majority of nurses is not authentic. Should we wait to be "authentic" to have a voice? *peep* Would a fledgling organization that you would start have an authentic voice? Should it wait to have one before it speaks?

Organization change can occur from forces without or within. I hope dissenters can tell me that they have been within before they bash. ANA's not perfect. Though ANA has long worn the mantle of union and professional organization, more nurses than ever are wanting true union representation and so that has been a new role for them to adapt. When I saw notices that even in house docs are looking into union organization, I knew we were at the doorway of a new era. Sounds like CNA's problems are related to growing pains and ALL organizations have growing pains.

I think dissent has some responsibilities. You know, Wildtime, you are the person that made the claim that ANA spends irresponsibly. Go support your claim. As a lukewarm ANA member, I have never particularly questioned their expenditures and like most ANA posters, I see balance statements and such all of the time. As a CM, I called my ANA state level staff and got information, in a few minutes conversation, that helped one of my clients and it was because Teri knew systems, who to talk to, what phrases to use to maximize impact. I got bang for my buck from an ANA staffer that has actually spread out and impacted other CM kids that my group served. Some might have said that the networking we pay Teri to do is wasted, is silly but it turned into a care level decision for me. I've also called Teri and gotten information from her mouth that I didn't like. That's pretty real life, too. This woman doesn't know me from beans but she takes my calls because _I am a nurse_. They don't even ask if I am a dues paying member.

BTW, I think ANA did (and maybe belatedly) pick up the issue of the bedside nursing patient to staff ratio issue the first and brought it to the forefront. Do you remember their pamphlet years ago which asked patients if they had a nurse at their bedside? That was the beginning of a media campaign that started to raise consumer awareness. You may notice that the problem persists. Many difficult issues persist and evolve over decades (witness the entry into practice issue). If you were waiting for Beverly Malone in a Fairy Godmother costume to wave her wand and erase the bedside care issue, then it's not a surprise that you're disappointed. This is a deeply ingrained and difficult problem to solve and it will take persistence and micro victories. Indeed ANA like organizations can be like "Mating Elephants" (takes place at a high level, accompanied by a lot of noise, takes two years to get any results). This will be true if the micro-victories occur because of ANA or the Wildtime Radical Nursing Organization (or even those two organizations in conjunction).

I appreciate Karen's synopsis of our history here because knowing where we came from often tells us why we are going where we are going. In the here and now, nurses need some voice and they even need dissenters. Wildtime, if you use your energy in a constructive fashion, in 20 years every nurse will know your real name. Do it within or without of ANA. I believe you advocate a work slow down? Go ahead organize. Do it. But don't be surprised if you find yourself suffering from some of the same organizational problems as ANA (like calling for dues that some think are excessive). It's always an individual surprise when "they" and "those people" becomes "me". Complaining and identifying problems that are or are not ours to solve may be the easiest part of the process. The real work comes with rolling up your sleeves, identifying the solutions, and staying with the process. ANA has been willing to continue to ride problems. I appreciate that and it is one of the reasons I send them my money, year after year. Also, like it or not, ANA does things for you, Wildtime, that you have benefitted from without a penny expenditure on your part. I'm glad that their lobbyist watches along side the Board of Nursing's when ever someone wants to dink with the nurse practice act. I'm glad some ANA lobbyist is tapping legislators on the shoulder and talking to them about student loans for new nurses. Some of these folks may come along and share the burden where you work. I'm glad that ANA was the vocal voice against Patient Care Associates displacing nurses. I'm glad that ANA lobbied for research dollars to document the state of bedside nursing because that is a language some folks talk.

Wildtime and friends, it is not that dissent cannot be spoken but please, please let's have some gentility. And let go of the notion that these solutions are simple or that change should occur because it is best or right. Fundamentally, we agree, but that is fairyland thinking. Expect the process to be imperfect. Life is imperfect. Engage yourself in life and celebrate the process. I worry that the anger and cynicism of some posters on this board will consume them.

Many of the pro-ANA forces here have felt anger and turned their anger into action. Not the fist-slamming action of the rude comment, but the thoughtful dialogue. As I frequently say to my 9 year old son, "When you are shouting at me, all I hear is adrenalin." Work through ANA, another organization, one of your own creating but work toward change. You know fundamentally we all agree on that: There's gotta be some change here, for our patients and for us.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change those I can and Wisdom to know the difference.

natalie · Apr 21, 2001

Molly, that was beautiful.

Msc · Apr 22, 2001

A direct quote from allnurses.com news article regarding ANA applauding Nurse Reinvestment Act: "The American Nurses Association is the only full-service

professional organization representing the nation's nearly 2.7

million Registered Nurses through its 54 constituent associations.

ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of

nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of

nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of

nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on

health care issues affecting nurses and the public."

Can anyone come up with any verified evidence to support this rhetoric? Work conditions over the past 10+ years have "gone to the dogs". Hello... This is why there is a shortage. People are running from poor work environments, and encouraging young people to avoid the nursing profession altogether!!

Tim-GNP · Apr 22, 2001

This rhetoric on this subject, actually, has become boring and likened to banging heads against a wall--- check out the following debates:

https://allnurses.com/bb/Forum1/HTML/002364.html

https://allnurses.com/bb/Forum1/HTML/002393.html

https://allnurses.com/bb/Forum1/HTML/002392.html

There really is nothing more to say.

--Cheers