Sticking Together: Nurses as Advocates for Each Other
By Jennifer Larson, contributor
May 12, 2010 - As a nurse, your job is to advocate for your patients. You make sure their needs are met and they receive the best possible care. You stand up for them. It is like second nature for most nurses to do just that.
But nurses can and should be advocates for their fellow nurses, as well. To Sandy Summers, MSN, RN, executive director for The Truth About Nursing in Baltimore, Md., it just makes sense.
“We need to stick together to strengthen the profession,” said Summers, who advocates for improved portrayals of nurses in the media. “Our patients can’t get the quantity or quality of patient care they need until we strengthen the profession.”
Brenda Cleary, Ph.D., RN, director of the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA), agreed, noting that the issues important to nurses, and to nursing in general, often overlap with those important to patients. Promoting the nursing profession, therefore, is good for patients, too.
“It’s really a natural ally,” she said, noting that the AARP, which founded the CCNA, did so because nursing issues have a vital impact on consumers, too.
“I think that’s our challenge in terms of advocacy,” she continued. “To build on the public trust and to help the public understand that a nurse being there…may save your life.”
Vitally Important
Indeed, promoting the interests of nurses, and by extension, their patients, is a major goal of many nursing associations, including the American Nurses Association and its affiliates. In fact, the ANA’s mission statement is “Nurses advancing our profession to improve health for all.” These groups advocate for the nursing profession in a variety of ways, including lobbying lawmakers, contributing to health care policy and projecting positive images of nurses in the media.
The ANA and newer organizations like the CCNA and the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future have worked tirelessly to stand up for the nursing profession and its members. Nursing unions like the National Nurses United also work on behalf of their members to advance the causes most important to them and their patients.
But there is still much work to be done.
Many believe that there is a significant need for nurses to advocate more for themselves and their profession. A survey conducted last autumn and released in January by Gallup for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that many leaders see “significant barriers” that keep nurses from fully participating when it comes to being leaders and making decisions in health care. Yet, the leaders also said they believe that nurses should have more influence than they do now.
Essentially, Cleary said, nurses need to work to make sure that they are represented in positions of leadership where they can make a very real contribution—not as a token, but because of their nursing backgrounds and skills.
According to Suzanne Gordon, author of several books about nursing -- including the new When Chicken Soup Isn’t Enough -- advocacy needs to be more than just wishing someone well. Nurses who want to be advocates need to understand that they are going to have to stand up and defend their position or take a stance on something they believe is important. Yet many nurses find that to be a tall order.
“I think nurses do incredibly important work, and they don’t talk about it,” she said, noting that many nurses also minimize their contributions and downplay the significance of what they do.
She advises nurses, “Talk about what you do very concretely. Don’t talk about how you feel…tell us what you do to care for the patient. Use concrete details. Don’t hide your medical knowledge and skills.”
The Possibilities of Advocacy
What does an advocacy role look like? It can vary. Some may find themselves running for office, either locally or on the state level. Others may work to get appointed to the board of directors of a health care association or a hospital, such as the Virginia Nurses Association’s president, Shirley Gibson, recently did. Another example from the VNA: Chelsea Savage, assistant commissioner for government relations recently applied and was accepted to the prestigious Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. Both will now have the opportunity to use their influence on behalf of nurses in a wider sphere.
But for some nurses, advocacy is less about lobbying in Congress or serving on a board of directors than it is about finding a way to take action on behalf of other nurses—and to help them make a difference, too.
Ginger Manley, MSN, RN, remembers what it was like when she became a nurse practitioner in 1975. There weren’t many nurse practitioners around yet, and so she and her colleagues had to become their own advocates, educating people about their roles and correcting people who didn’t understand. They worked to get laws changed and opinions changed so they—and the nurse practitioners who would follow in their footsteps--could practice. They were grateful for support from organizations like the Tennessee Nurses Association along the way, and for the examples set by the nurses who came before them.
When she retired from practice in 2005, Manley decided it was time to “pay it forward” by supporting other nurses who needed help. She created the Nurses’ Apron Partnership, a grassroots organization of nurses who wrote a series of essays about a collection of vintage aprons that Manley inherited from a relative. She collected the essays into a book, titled Gotcha Covered: A Legacy of Service and Protection, and the royalties are donated to a nurse-led nonprofit called Burning Bush, Inc., that funds nurses who own and run health clinics in central Kenya.
She may never get the chance to visit Kenya herself, but she is glad that she can put her talents to work to help nurses. And she encourages other nurses to remember that when they may be trying to think of a way they can make a difference.
“You never know when the skills you have may help somebody else,” Manley said.
Donna Maheady, Ed.D., ARNP, founded a nurse advocacy organization for similar reasons. Her own daughter, Lauren, had several significant disabilities, inspiring Maheady to become an advocate for disabled people, and eventually disabled nursing students. She did her doctoral dissertation on the experiences of nursing students with disabilities, and the Exceptional Nurse organization grew out of that.
“Nurses with disabilities need advocates. Discrimination against nurses with disabilities is common in health care settings,” she explained. “Nurses who are or become disabled can feel isolated, alone and kicked to the curb… Nurses who have lived through the experience often have the strength that a newly disabled nurse may not have. They can offer support, guidance and suggestions on ways to navigate the system and fight the battles.”
She hopes that her organization will help nurses who become disabled realize that they can stay in the profession—and continue to contribute their experience and expertise.
“It demonstrates to nurses and students with disabilities—and to nursing faculty and employers—that nursing with a disability is possible,” Maheady said.
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