“During that time, I learned that a little activism can get you a long way,” says Behrens, MSN, RN, FNP-C, a Wyoming Nurses Association member and the ANA’s second vice president.

Yet it was a phone call in 1983 that changed, or at least broadened, the course of her career as an RN. A friend called her to report something unusual at an area river. Behrens went to the river and saw raw sewage entering the water. She suspected the source was a nearby housing development, which she believed was built without adequate water treatment.

“Being a nurse, I immediately saw this as a health issue,” Behrens says. Spurred into action, she notified the Casper, Wyoming, health department, spoke at city council meetings, and even called a news conference to alert residents and lawmakers to this public health hazard. Her investigation also revealed a high incidence of diarrhea among children at nearby day care centers.

Behrens’ activism not only forced city leaders to prevent further pollution of the river, but it inspired her to run for city council. She won and then proceeded to become the mayor of Casper, and after that a Wyoming legislator.

Throughout her political career, Behrens continued her nursing practice, working part time as a family nurse practitioner at a local clinic. Nursing also found its way into her political practice.

“I always ran (for office) as a nurse, and I’m very proud of that,” Behrens says. “I think nurses make good politicians because of our basic nursing skills, especially our ability to listen to people and assess individuals, families, and the environment.”

Behrens’ role as a political insider also gave her the opportunity to champion causes. For example, she fought for sufficient funding for public health department programs, including child immunizations and maternal-child services.

“Even if nurses don’t want to run for political offices themselves, they can always work for someone’s campaign or make a trip to the city council to advocate for someone, like older adults or something, like inequity in women’s salaries,” Behrens says.

Another way to influence policy

Like Behrens, Greer Glazer, PhD, RN, CNP, FAAN, believes nursing and political action go hand in hand. Her entry onto the political scene came shortly after joining the Ohio Nurses Association after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1976.

“It’s really the best way to get involved,” says Glazer, chairperson of ANA’s political action committee, ANA–PAC. Glazer immediately decided to pursue her long-held interest in politics by working on her district’s legislative committee.

Through that work, she began to build valuable, enduring relationships with local and state lawmakers, some of whom went on to hold national positions. For example, a strong relationship with former Democratic Congressman Eric Fingerhut, now a state senator, led to her representing nurses on a national health care advisory committee. She also worked with Ohio policymakers to make crucial improvements in her state’s nurse practice act, as well as to defeat measures to expand physician assistants’ scope of practice.

Although it seemed natural for Glazer to get involved in political action and broader nursing issues, she said other nurses often don’t see it as part of their professional responsibility.

“A major problem today is that we have not socialized RNs into the role of activist,” Glazer says. “Schools of nursing need to make sure they infuse future nurses with the idea that their role is not just about one-on-one patient care. It’s also about getting involved in political action.”

Glazer says that health care and workplace problems are all around nurses. For example, nurses in some hospitals continue to be forced to work overtime, and many patients continue to require acute care because they can’t afford prescription medications.

“However, some states now have laws banning mandatory overtime because nurses got involved and made it an issue,” Glazer says. “Nurses need to make the connection between seeing a problem and getting involved as the way to make a difference in their workplaces and health care.

“And the failure to act is an action, which means that if you don’t get involved, things will continue to evolve and just happen to you and around you,” she adds.

Ways and means

Michelle Artz, an ANA senior political action specialist, says there are three major strategies to move nursing issues: grassroots action, lobbying, and political advocacy.

For example, Delaware Nurses Association members recently took grassroots action by staging mercury thermometer exchanges throughout their state to address health hazards associated with mercury contamination. Through lobbying efforts by association staff and its national nurses network, called Nurses Strategic Action Team (N-STAT), the ANA won passage of federal needlestick legislation and is now pursuing a safe staffing measure, among other efforts.

But with elections coming up in November, this is prime time for RNs to promote nursing’s agenda by flexing their political action muscles. The ANA is encouraging nurses to take the opportunity to get involved in elections at the local, state, and national levels.

Political advocacy is not about political parties or personal agendas, according to Artz. Rather, it’s about locating and supporting policymakers who believe in the cause of nursing, and who, through their words and actions, will work toward enhancing the nursing profession.  

“All races are bettered by [nurses’] involvement,” says Erin Murphy, RN, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association and chairperson of the ANA’s presidential endorsement committee. (The ANA endorsed Senator John Kerry (D-MA) after a thorough examination of presidential candidates’ views and backgrounds, as well as input from nurse members.)

“The election process is where democracy has its voice,” Murphy says. “Every election gives us the opportunity to assess where we are at and make an important choice about where we want to go. We can decide that we want a fresh start with new candidates or decide that we like the way things are and vote for incumbents.

“I encourage nurses to read about candidates’ views, share with others why they support certain candidates, and then vote.”

Murphy adds that nurses also have a moral and professional obligation to participate in the political process; it provides RNs with another important avenue to be advocates for their patients and other vulnerable populations.

In addition to casting ballots, there are other opportunities for nurses to become politically active—either by volunteering on campaigns or running for office, according to Rose Gonzalez, MPS, RN, director of the ANA’s government affairs department.

“Nurses sometimes think that if they don’t live in Washington, DC, they can’t get involved,” she says. “But it really does take our involvement—on school boards, city councils and higher offices—to put nursing at the decision-making tables.”

Another way ANA members can show their political activism is by contributing to the ANA–PAC, through which staff and nurse volunteers conduct research to determine whether candidates are supportive of nurses’ issues, as well as educate potential office-holders about crucial nursing and health care issues. The PAC then uses its donations to support the campaigns of those candidates deemed to be nurse-friendly.  

“It’s important to understand that the political process takes money,” Glazer says. “If ANA members just gave $20 apiece, we would be over a $3 million PAC.”

And finally, Behrens says, “I think sometimes nurses think ‘my little bit won’t make a difference.’ But all they need to do is take a look at the last presidential election—no matter how they felt about the outcome—to realize that individual actions do count.”

Getting Involved

To learn more about the ANA’s presidential endorsement process, getting involved in 2004 elections, joining N-STAT, or more information on important nursing legislation, visit www.anapoliticalpower.org.

Susan Trossman is the senior reporter for the American Nurse, published by the ANA.

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