Wisconsin Nurses

Kayzee · Mar 6, 2003

No, I am not. Have thought about it, but never really looked into it much. What can the WNA do for you? I don't know...do you?

emily_mom · Mar 6, 2003

Originally posted by Kayzee
No, I am not. Have thought about it, but never really looked into it much. What can the WNA do for you? I don't know...do you?

I'm thinking the same thing. I will graduate in May but no one talks about it, so I don't know what they do. There is an RN on here that is active in the WNA. Maybe she will post and give us insight. :confused:

itsme · Mar 6, 2003

Nope, what are the advantages?

Q. · Mar 6, 2003

No, I'm not involved in the WNA; I didn't see any advantages. In school, I was active in the SNA, so in that sense I was exposed to activism and politics.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 6, 2003

NURSES must take the responsibility for shaping OUR profession.

If we don't, legislators and other healthcare groups certainly will. Lack of education about our PROFESSIONAL responsibilities is sorely missing in today's curriculum.

See what your missing: http://www.wisconsinnurses.org/

For those nurses who were active in student associations, why no interest in professional association?

Enright · Mar 6, 2003

I don't feel the WNA has anything to offer me except for high dues. I do get a lot from my professional organizations...ARN, Sigma Theta Tau. They also don't cost so much (all together their annual does do not add up to the high WNA fees)

I know that in some states, the state RN association is also the bargaining organization for the nurse union. That isn't so here in WI. I have a union and pay them 600$ a year. I just don't see that WNA is worth the money.

RN4jewels · Mar 6, 2003

I am not a member, just getting my butt in the door of the profession and my nursy fingers trained, I am quite and activist tho and will be doing something with my big mouth. I did go to nurses day at the capital a few years ago, It took 8 hrs to regurgitate what my 7 yr old learned from schoolhouse rock (I'm just a Bill on Capital Hill............) Clearly a waste of my precious time and when I dying I will want that day back. I am looking into legal nursing now and I am an advocate for nurses, I will check into it. I do agree that we need to get together in this state there is strength in numbers I am tired of being a doormat.

moonshadeau, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APN, NP, CNS · Mar 6, 2003

I would be your resident WNA active member. I want to get more staff nurse involvement in the organization because I don't believe that the staff nurses are well represented at this time. Nursing educators, administrators and managers are very well represented, however, when is the last time knew the role of a staff nurse intimately.

Any questions fire away or PM me. I am not necessarily trying to "drum up business" but in order to make an effective change, we have to know where we are falling short and what nurses view as valuable or not valuable.

WI-RN2be · Mar 7, 2003

Not a member of WNA yet. I graduate in May so then I will sign up for membership. I have been a member of WSNA for the past 2 years.

Spent Tuesday at the Capitol for Nurses Day at the Capitol. I was impressed with the speakers. Although we had to take notes to write a paper it was at times tough to write and listen at the same time. Looking to get more involved as I realized if we don't have a voice no one is going to understand all that Nurses are tryoing to accomplish and what we are all about. As one of the speakers said " We are an intellectual group, and not just task orientated."

peggywi_RN · Mar 7, 2003

I have never felt the need to get involved with the WNA..I think their dues are way too high and they turned me off with their BSN vs ADN proposals when i graduated 16 years ago...I still do not see an advantage for me

-jt · Mar 8, 2003

The advantage is in making the voice of staff RNs & your profession stronger in your state. Its not about getting personal perks. The "advantage" is much bigger than that. If you are a practicing RN, what the state nurses assoc does affects you. If it doesnt have the membership, it wont have the funds to do much of anything & that will affect you too. It is to the nurses advantage to make sure her state assoc has the means to do what nurses need it to do. RNs can choose to sit back and do nothing to strengthen the voice of nursing in their state, provide no support, & then complain that the assoc in their state is "ineffective", or they can join their state nurses assoc, and help give it the means to make nursing a force to be reckoned with in their legislature and also to be able to provide the programs that nurses need - such as the peer assistance program that helps addicted RNs to regain their lives.

Your state nurses assoc is who guides your state on making laws that affect you & your practice. If staff RNs are not in it, others will be making the laws you have to work by. If staff RNs are absent, do not support nursing lobbyists in their states, and with their uninvolvement cause nursing to be politically weak on their issues in their state, they cant complain when their state legislarure does nothing to improve their workplace situation. Every other group has lobbyists at their state capitols. If nurses wont support theirs, they are defeating themselves when it comes to state laws that affect them.

For example, in NY, pharmacists are lobbying to have a state law passed that will allow them to administer meds & vaccinations - taking over a key role of RNs & eliminating RNs from various work settings. Also, the hospital assoc is lobbying to overturn a new law that prevents medicaid funds from being used to pay for union-busting instead of only pt care. In Colorado, a nursing home owner is trying to get the state to pass a law that will reduce the qualifications & credentials of RNs, which will bar their licenses from being recognized by other states, and hold them hostage being able to work only in Colorado. In instances like these, it is the state nurses assocs that are leading the fight against them for all nurses in their states - paid for by the dues of the members.

If it were not for the work our state nurses assocs are doing on our behalf, these people would have already gotten their way & we would just have to live with it, no matter how badly it affected us. Supporting our state assocs so they can fight things like this is to our advantage. That support comes in the form of active membership. Laws for safe staffing, safe pt care, forced overtime bans, financial assistance for nursing education, and many other bills that affect RNs and patients are being written, guided, & lobbied for by the state nurses assocs. Everything costs money. Without the membership dues and support of nurses in their states, the state nurses assocs would not be able to do any of it & we would all be at the mercy of whatever non-nurses decided to do to our profession in our states.

It is no accident that the state assocs with the largest numbers of members are also the strongest and most effective. They have the resources to get the work done for our benefit. And that is to the advantage of every nurse in their states.

For more info on the work that the WNA to doing for all RNs in that state, funded by its members, see: http://www.wisconsinnurses.org/l3content.asp?contentid=9