Well, I live in California, and recently visited with nurses in the Bay Area. Managed care is still very much present, and nurses in all settings are struggling to address short staffing, mandatory overtime, replacement of RNs by unlicensed personnel and a host of other issues in California just like nurses across the country. In addition, the CNA's endorsement of the Green Party left the association and its members on the fringe of the real health care debate and further isolated as they work alone in California. CNA has been busy sowing seeds of disunity among nurses across the country, and leaving their own members adrift in the process. Massachusetts nurses who call for an extremist agenda are in danger of doing the same, leaving thousands of worried Massachusetts nurses adrift, without effective or credible representation.
People everywhere are worried about and unhappy with the quality of their health care.
Together, through advocacy and activism, we can do something to address those concerns. Across the country, states are continuing to coordinate with ANA to address the issues of short staffing, mandatory overtime and safe, quality patient care. These issues will require serious and sustained advocacy and professional support. This is the kind of work that ANA and its CMAs excel at. This is the work the nurses of this country expect from us.