Nurses Must Join Together to Become Powerful

Should nurses join nursing associations? YES!, YES!, YES! There is a lot going on in the nursing field, new advancements, changes in laws, changes in the Board of Nurses' rules and regulations, etc. It is very difficult for an individual to keep abreast of what is changing, much less to take the time to advocate for positions supporting nurses. Just try to find all the bills affecting nurses during a Legislative Session and then what if one of them adversely affects nursing practice, would an individual have the time to comment on the proposed legislation or to attend the various meetings? New rules and regulations proposed by the Board of Nurses are even more difficult to track and rarely do individuals submit comments on proposed rules. As an example, a recent rule proposed by the Board of Nurses adversely affected nurses but only two individuals (I was one) and the Texas Nurse Association commented. The Board went ahead with adopting the proposed rule. With more support from Texas nurses, the rule could have been either withdrawn or changed to more favorable language.

Nurses typically do not join state, national or specialty associations. This is the reason why nurses are politically weak. Physicians and Hospitals join their associations and that is why those associations carry so much weight with politicians. Money and votes matter to our Legislators. If all nurses joined nursing associations, we would far outnumber the physician and hospital associations combined. The combined membership fees would provide the associations with the monetary power they need. Instead of gaining support for bills from physician groups and hospital associations, the Legislature would know that they need to listen to the nursing associations first.

I hear complaints that the nursing associations do not support bedside nurses, that they focuses on nursing educators and nursing administrators. Any association is a reflection of its members. Nursing educators and administrators know the value of joining associations and so the associations naturally reflect the goals of those members. If bedside nurses want to change this, they must join the associations and then seek to change the goals. The association will follow the desires of its members.

If nurses want to be powerful, they must join nursing associations that are active in the legislative arenas that are of interest to them. So, if a nurse cares about making changes in Texas State Politics and with the Texas Board of Nurses, the nurse should look to state nursing associations. Nurses need to stop being doormats and start standing up as a profession.