Come On!!

fergus51 · Oct 4, 2003

People railing against the ANA always surprises me... I think the answer to your first question is your second question. Even at its height, the ANA has never had a majority of nurses as members. How powerful can we expect it to be when most of us never support it?

As an aside, nursing has made a lot of progress in the last 50 years. it's not enough, but it is heading in the right direction.

ainz · Oct 4, 2003

Is nursing really heading in the right direction? How so? Back in the 1950s the ANA had a membership of approximately 55% of the nurses in this country. Why did they lose that support?

I am not railng against them, just asking where are they? Have you received anything from them lately in the form of recruiting and retention?

Has anyone received anything from the ANA lately asking you to join???

I have contacted them twice in the past few months concerning membership and other issues, received no response nor acknowedgement. Knd of like your legislators.

Considerng the issues at hand, I would think the ANA would be on the forefront. Have you read their Nursing Agenda. It is the usual "nursey" language that is flowery and hard to read and says alot about all of the things that need to be done.

I am not impressed at ths point.

PJMommy · Oct 4, 2003

So back to my earlier question...why don't you get in there and change it? Sorry...don't mean to be confrontational but it seems like I see a lot of these posts where people are saying the ANA isn't working. But I never see any posts where anyone is actually doing something about it. Saying that people don't call you back or respond to your requests doesn't mean you stop...it means you push harder. It seems like nursing in general tip-toes around *asking* for respect when we should be *demanding* it.

Why not, as mentioned earlier, start at the local ANA district? This is how I joined...which translates to a state and national membership. Ask when and where the meetings are and then go and take a friend. :)

gwenith, BSN, RN · Oct 5, 2003

We are very unionised but this is also a cultural thing where the unions are seen as the balance to big business - our politics is even divided that way but nurses even here are notoriously uninterested in supporting the union. Despite this we have reasonable membership - why???

They hold our professional indemnity. We pay for professional indemnity each year along with our fee and we have full representation in industrial legislation and court cases. It is a mighty nice carrot to dangle in front of potential members.

cwazycwissyRN, RN · Oct 5, 2003

Lots of good ideas here, certainly making me think. Thanks

fergus51 · Oct 5, 2003

Ainz, I haven't gotten anything from the ANA lately, but I have been working in Canada for the last couple of years:) Our union was founded a few decades ago, and if you read why they were founded you would see a huge improvement in todays nursing as opposed to nursing before them. Is it enough? No, but I do think it is going in the right direction. Nurses are paid more, given more responsibility (making NP roles defined) and more education (minimum BSN now) than they were in the past. Attitudes are slowly changing from seeing the nurse as a glorified waitress. It's going to take time, and it will never be universal, but the public is learning about our value.

ainz · Oct 5, 2003

I agree that unions and staffing ratios are necessary for the shorter term but my experiences have been that nurses usually stop there.

Just so you know, I am not one to just talk, ask, complain, and not actually do anything. Not in my genetic make-up to be that way. :)

Nursie30 · Oct 5, 2003

I recieve the newsletter for the MO state board of nursing, a couple of months ago, there was a call for all nurses, RN's and LPN's to go to the capitol, theory being, more people....bigger voice.......I wanted to go, but unfortunately couldn't take the time off of work to go.....no pun intended.....

My point is, what about a march.........you know like the Million Man March, Or Gay rights advocates do, to draw attention to the fact that we need Attention?

That wouldn't be too hard to get started especially since there are so many nurses here at All Nurses from so many different areas.........what do you think?

Kayde · Oct 5, 2003

Replying to the closed unit ob,we have this too. Our supervisors can issue a staffing emergency and the ob staff can float. They will be assigned baths , lights and vitals. The problem over the years, when someone trys to decide the ob or float person not use to adult care needs to take assignments. These days there are very few "easy patients".

fergus51 · Oct 5, 2003

The problem with floating from OB is also what happens if OB needs them back and they have been around dirty patients all shift? infection control policies need to be written to deal with this.

lsyorke, RN · Oct 5, 2003

"Has anyone received anything from the ANA lately asking you to join"

I've been a nurse for 20 years (15 as LPN, 5 as RN) and the only time I even heard of the ANA was on a Nursing 3 test that asked which organization can only RN's join??

I've never recieved anything from them, wouldn't even know where to find out about them. I get mail daily from all sorts of nurse recruiters but nothing from the ANA. That may account for the lack of membership.

ainz · Oct 5, 2003

BINGO!!!!!!!!!