The Nurse Unchained
One nurse’s unabashed opinion on all things nursing.

They’re at it again, those prevaricating leaders of the ANA, misrepresenting their membership numbers and of course the media that seems more concerned with regurgitating a press release then actually fact checking what the ANA spoon feeds them and then writing their own story instead they are complicit in perpetuating the ANA’s lie.  If not for the media aiding and abetting the ANA in their fabrication, the ANA would have long ago stopped their prevaricating ways (or at least some of them) and not pretend that they represent the interest of nurses that aren’t even members of their organization.

President Obama (a man, I think, that’s never met a misstatement that he hasn’t liked) stands before the American people and tells us that his “plan” for health care reform which is not even his own (the plan actually belongs to Congress and in particular the Democratic-controlled Congress) has the backing of the nurses, as if all 2.9 million of us have held a convention and come to an agreement on his “vision” and we’re unanimous about our support of his “plan” when we are far from an agreement on his or any other plan being floated out there.  What he means to say is that the ANA, a nursing organization that reportedly represents somewhere between 180,000 to 190,000 thousand RNs out of the almost 3 million RNs that are active in this country, is behind him when the reality is that just a little over 15% (and that’s assuming that all of the ANA’s members agree) of America’s RNs are behind him and his efforts when he refers to the support of the nurses and the ANA.

All the while they’re in their white lab coats and scrubs in neat little lines behind the President using the illusion of the organization’s large membership to provide him with credibility, just like the American Medical Association right before their membership blew the lid off of their charade of being the voice of the American doctor; and yet few have questioned the validity of the ANA’s claim of representing the interest of 2.9 million RNs.  What’s truly ironic is that a membership of nearly 200,000 is a respectable number by nearly any standard, especially for nurses who can be as hard as herding cats when it comes to getting them to join a group.  But no the nursing leadership of the ANA can’t help themselves and they have to pretend that they represent all of “nursingdom”, and I know I’m not the only one who’s grown tired of their lies and misrepresentations.

In their latest press release they have the gall to open their press release citing the statistic that nurses, once again, are ranked as one of our nation’s most trusted professions, and yet they think nothing of misrepresenting the facts when it comes to their membership and it’s a slippery slope because as the saying goes little lie, big lie.  The ANA doesn’t nor has it ever even come close to represent the interest of all of America’s RNs, they as a membership organization can only represent their members and unless you pay the ANA cold cash you’re not a member thus limiting their sphere of representation to those nurses who consent to be members of the ANA.  But the ANA like the AMA has long held an over inflated sense of self-worth and this has caused them to misrepresent their membership base just so they can have a seat at the table.  It’s time for the ANA to come clean and cite their actual membership numbers and leave the rest of the 2,710,000 of us alone because we didn’t appoint them our spokesperson or spokes organization.

This is an open letter from one RN who’s sick and tired of the American Nurses Association (ANA) getting away with propagating the myth that they represent the interests of 2.9 million RNs in this country!  Most RNs are not members of the ANA, and in a recently released Annual Report the ANA published that less than 11% of all eligible RNs in the country were members of the ANA or any other similar association/union.

Like so many organizations the ANA is a member organization and thus they can only speak for their members, and yet the ANA allows the media, pundits, elected officials and the public-at-large to believe that they represent the 2.9 million RNs, or the interest of 2.9 million RNs depending on which of their press releases your read.

Nursing is a profession that demands the highest of ethical practices from those who practice this time-honored profession; and in turn organizations that purport to represent nurses should be held to the same high standards, and when organizations such as the ANA promulgates misinformation about the number of RNs that are members they are perpetuating a deception on not only their members but the public as well.

Several years ago when the California Nurses Association (C.N.A.) tried to pass themselves off as the voice of the California RN, I was quick to illustrate in a letter to the editor that they represent just about one-third of California RNs (and most of those RNs were as much members by choice as by being forced to be members via a closed shop agreement).  I made clear that the C.N.A. was welcome to represent themselves as a voice or one of the voices of nursing in California, but unless they represented a majority of California RNs they could not be considered “the voice” of the California RN and to their credit to this day they only present themselves as “a voice”.   Now the ANA wants to pass itself off as the voice of the American RN and they do so in couched and carefully constructed sound bites to provide the illusion that all 2.9 million RNs are a united voice and the represented body for that voice is the ANA – how patriarchal and chauvinistic of them!

The most recent example of the ANA arrogance is their endorsement of Senator Barack Obama, and by claiming once again that the ANA represents the interests of the nation’s 2.9 million registered nurses.  The ANA needs to reissue their press release to accurately reflect the number of nurses that their organization actually represents, and stop perpetuating the lie that all 2.9 million RNs in this country have acquiesced their voice to this one organization.

This does not mean that the ANA hasn’t promoted programs that have benefited the nursing profession as a whole, but then again one could argue every nursing organization regardless of size, focus, or political persuasion has at some point or another promoted positive nursing change.  However this does not give the ANA or any other membership organization liberty to pretend to speak for all nurses!  ANA membership is not free, and to be a member of the ANA requires that you pay your dues, so until all 2.9 million (or majority) of RNs sign up as members of the ANA this RN will continue to speak out about the myth that the ANA represents the interests of 2.9 million RNs.

Answer me this who died and elected them our spokes-organization?

If you agree please add you name and your home state to this list and share it far and wide.

Geneviève M. Clavreul, RN, Ph.D. – California