Comments on: Professional Integrity: Don’t Forget the Nurses

By: Maureen

Maureen — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:12:37 +0000

I have 37 years as a practicing nurse.I have been disppointed in Nuring Leaders all these years. I joined th fight to remove my cap, to be able to wear pants to work, to tell the doctor to get his own chair. In have demanded that everyone respect my knowledge not just my ability to perform skills. The national nursing organizations need to stop writing white papers and become more activist in nature bringing forth the concept of an intelligent, knowlegeable nurse who utilizes cognitive forces while assisting patients/clients in their particular perceived quality of life. We as nurses must cure as ills here at home before we begin to solve the global ills.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:55:53 +0000

I agree with Deb 10/13/09, except for one thing..I am not giving up the fight..yet. After twenty years in the profession I still have some hope that it will improve. As for Annie Kreider’s comment that nurses can’t or won’t be patient advocates, I heartily disagree. I think nurses who entered this profession for all the right reasons, wanting to help people, wanting to make a difference in their lives, and
answering a calling that I think is as strong as any of a priest or minister, are truely patient advocates. Those nurses who chose to be nurses because of the good income and almost endless amount of jobs have a different attitude. They are the ones who have tarnished our profession. I know because I work with both kinds of nurses.

By: deb

deb — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:00:18 +0000

We want to be caregivers, not gatekeepers. Big insurance and thier profit seeking bedfellows should be ashamed of forcing this role upon us under the guise of “care management”. We want to provide our care based on need, not ability to pay. After 25 years in the trenches of acute care, physician clinics and case managment I quit!

By: Annie Kreider, EdD(c), EdM, RN

Annie Kreider, EdD(c), EdM, RN — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:41:38 +0000

I’m a former nurse who believes that the profession is failing in a catastrophic manner.

Nurses are still unable and unwilling to serve as proper patient advocates, and they still refuse to reach consensus on vital issues which underpin the (?) profession.

Members of the public have no idea about how poorly professional nursing is practiced until they need professional nursing services, and what they receive instead is lacking professionalism, practice autonomy and essential advocacy.

The American Nurses Association has failed to serve as a standard bearer in these areas, and into the breach have lurched unions, none of which is headed by nurses (California Nurses Association, SEIU, etc).

Nurses have passively and aggressively tried to outsource their autonomy by asking for patient ratio legislation rather than forming professional practice organizations which self regulate and contract directly with groups of patients and patient care organizations.

Their voices have only been used for photo-ops by the Obama Administration, and few nurses are involved in policy formulation and operations.

I follow the American Association Colleges of Nursing’s white papers in order to keep current on issues vital to professional nursing, because the ANA doesn’t even bother to publish white papers for the public, nor does it respond to questions by non-members – hardly a way to represent American nursing to the public and to all nnurses.