A recent study led by Vanderbilt University professor Peter Buerhaus polled registered nurses about two timely issues -- the state of health care and the importance of the issue in the upcoming election.
With a close election expected, the country's three million registered nurses could make a difference in the election, Buerhaus says.
Most nurses interviewed support some form of universal health care coverage, although opinions vary on just how extensive coverage should be.
Very few approve of the country's health care system as it stands now, the survey shows.
...Slightly more than half, or 51 percent, believe that if all nurses could join together to address one health problem, it would be the number of uninsured Americans.
Thanks for clarifying. I heard from a friend in NYC at downstate medical school that this was the case, but verified it through another friend at Columbia. I wonder what makes more doctors join their personal association versus nurses not doing the same. What is the defining difference aside from the obvious?
Either way, I still feel like the more nurses who are in support of the ANA regardless of their values, etc would be more beneficial to nursing as a whole.
Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
It is my belief that my time and money are better spent joining and supporting professional organizations that focus on nursing care, not politics. If I want to support a political cause, I'll do that by way of political organization.
I realize other people have different philosophies, this is just mine :)
I think laws giving me the right as well as the responsibility to advocate in the exclusive interests and wishes of my patients is a good law. I think nurses working for whistleblower protection for healthcare workers who report abuse and/or unsafe patient care is an excellent use of our time.
And I am very proud to have been one of the tens of thousands of nurses who achieved the first safe staffing law. Ataffing by acuity with the ratio as the maximum number of patients a nurse may be assigned is a good law.
Most state nurses associations began with political action. The creation of a Board of Nursing to license nurses.
I think licensure protects the public.
And nurses were instrumental in women getting the vote.
It is my belief that my time and money are better spent joining and supporting professional organizations that focus on nursing care, not politics. If I want to support a political cause, I'll do that by way of political organization.
I realize other people have different philosophies, this is just mine :)
Please list one nursing professional association that is not politically active. Nursing practice, politics and public policy go hand in hand.
Nursing has such a hard time legitimizing itself as a profession because our time is not billable to the insurance company but rather lumped into the "room charge". It is for this reason that when execs want to cut costs they slash the nursing budget- forgetting that the major commodity of the hospital is nursing care. With global budgeting and re-instatement of the certificate of need combined with continuued research that validates the link between nursing care and patient safety nursing can become stronger.
This cannot be done without political action. The people who determine how money is spent and on what must be aware that the nursing profession deserves funds.
Furthermore, hospital administrators must be held accountable to their duty to patients - providing safe, effective, therapeutic, competent nursing care to all. This cannot be achieved in a virtually unregulated and unaccountable industry.
I appreciate that you are politically active regarding nursing issues. I have stated hat I prefer to separate my membership and participation in nursing organizations from my political activity. That stems from past membership in the ANA and my state organization that I found to be wholly unsatisfying. My dues were used to support political candidates whom I did not support, while at the same time the organization caved to pressure from the American Hospital Association and backed off on important patient care issues such as nursing staffing and expansion of duties for unlicensed assistive personnel.
I now focus my nursing activities on a local cooperative of maternal child nurses from a number of hospitals in our area. By working together we have found ways to improve staffing, implement evidence-based practice guidelines and facilitate communication between facilities and physicians who have privileges at more than one local hospital. I have seen the benefits to our staff and patients of these efforts and it has been far greater than anything the ANA or state organization has accomplished at the level of direct patient care.
I have come to realize that grass roots efforts have a more profound effect at the bedside than the actions of large nation-wide organizations, and that is where I choose to focus my efforts.
Please remember and respect that there are well-educated and thoughtful nurses who believe that Obama's policies would be disastrous for our society. The ANA does not speak for all nurses. That they try to put forth the appearance of doing so is one reason why I no longer belong. Oh, and I am "working hard to educate"!
Educate the disastrous effects of a McCain/Palin ticket, oh my God!
Ugh, she IS NOT going to attract a large number of women voters! And, McSame ole, same old is NOT going to smoke Obama! He chose her b/c he "thinks" she can attract the Hillary supporters. But, she is NO WHERE CLOSE to HILLARY CLINTON. Please. She is a regular woman who has done hardly anything for her community and even her locals in Alaska are stunned at this choice and believe she is not ready. She is against the environment and all womens rights. One specifically is abortion as a result of incest, rape or even the death of the mother. Any woman and actually, ANYONE who can read a basic lulla-bye, is going to recognize that she lacks in more ways than one in the things she brings to the table of the VP of the USA. The thought of someone so completely inexperienced taking over if McCain dies, makes me squirm in my seat!
GOD help us! Haven't we all suffered enough??
Obama and Biden are going to SWEEP this country with the change it needs! And I for one, cannot wait for that change to begin:)
Granted Palin may not get alot of women voters, but Obama wont either. As for Hilary, does anyone remember WhiteWater?? Lets face it, our choises are bad and bad, as I see it, neither is better or worse than the other. I am one of the undesided voters, I keep waitting (& praying) that someone will step up and stop playing politics long enough to give me a little encouragement. I watch the debates and walk away discouraged. Obama scares me with his talk of more spending to gain the American Dream, McCain scares me because he is one of the "good ole boys". Both mean increased taxes to me. Obama/Bindin & McCain/Palin are not exactly who I would have liked to have seen, but then our choises are limited. We need someone who is willing and able to lead this great country back to where we used to be.
That being said, I agree with Op that if all of us Nurses got together we could move mountians, make needed changes, improve healthcare. But, again, I don't see that happening either.
No matter who wins the elections- prez, state & local- nothing will change unless people get involved.
In the 1930's and 1940's people rallied together in this country and worked together to demand worker's rights, civil rights. They did it- they one the right to unionize, gained reasonable wages, fair labor laws and the middle class was created.
Their children enjoyed those liberties and were able to work hard and live well- health benefits, vacation time, a home.
Then came McCarthyism and TV...things started to change.
Progressive thinkers were purged from the US in various ways under the red banner of communism.
TV was able to send messages to the masses and a new form of perception control emerged.
Over time civil liberties eroded in such a manner that most didn't notice. The percent of unionized people decreased and so did wage growth. Employer intimidation took hold. Freedom to organize was no more.
As wages stopped growing and costs went up instead of demanding fair wages families compensated by sending mothers to work but many also changed the way they spent. Debt became the norm for the middle class- 2 cars were necessary- ads selling products- the age of consumerism. TV induced, mass societal greed- for some when they could least afford it. Rent What Would Jesus Buy from the video store:
We have to work together to strengthen the middle class or we will always be victims. Victims of unsafe drugs, insurance greed, employers who demand that we work more and more hours- robbing us of our family time.
No one person can do it. It is time to stop believing that activism, involvement, grass roots efforts and unionism are crimes and "radicalism" they should be the norm and include our children and families so that they know how to demand the rights our constitution has empowered them with. If we don't do it who will- their boss? the insurance company? the drug company? No.
Watch Stuart Acuff, assistant to the director to the AFL-CIO speak passionately at the CNA/NNOC staff nurse assembly- he spoke just after a nurse described her recent abuse by her employer when trying to unionize. Her boss acused her of being a theif, a drug abuser, subjected all of the workers to intimidation tactics that should be (and are) against the law in this nation. Yet the penalties are non-existent so employers have no reason not to act outside the law and human dignity.
France 90% union- guaranteed healthcare and 60 paid days off!!
Japan 24% union- 10 guaranteed days off a year.
USA- 14%- NO guaranteed workdays
Take off your partisan hats for a minute and hear him out.
Obama/Bindin & McCain/Palin are not exactly who I would have liked to have seen, but then our choises are limited. We need someone who is willing and able to lead this great country back to where we used to be.
That being said, I agree with Op that if all of us Nurses got together we could move mountians, make needed changes, improve healthcare. But, again, I don't see that happening either.
No matter what - we are going to be taxed. Why not demand we get the most for our money?? Taxes should increase the quality of life- we already pay as much tax as people in other countries with national health care. Shouldn't we have it then? That and other benefits like vacation and sick time.
Without significant reform our taxes will go up and so will our working hours and out of pocket costs for everything from food to healthcare- irregardless of who is prez.
CityKat, BSN, RN
554 Posts
Thanks for clarifying. I heard from a friend in NYC at downstate medical school that this was the case, but verified it through another friend at Columbia. I wonder what makes more doctors join their personal association versus nurses not doing the same. What is the defining difference aside from the obvious?
Either way, I still feel like the more nurses who are in support of the ANA regardless of their values, etc would be more beneficial to nursing as a whole.
In my opinion, it would strengthen our voice.