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American Nurses Association Statement on the 1996 Nurses March on Washington

WASHINGTON, DC -- May 6, 1996 -- In 1995, the American Nurses Association was a cosponsor of the First Nurses March on Washington on March 31. It was an historic day with more than 35,000 registered nurses rallying in front of the U.S. Capitol for safe patient care. ANA and some 25 ANA-affiliated state nurses associations contributed thousands of staff hours and significant resources to the 1995 march; these state associations also brought a large percentage of the event's participants. We were proud to be a part of it.

Restructuring of the hospital workforce, reduction in RN staffing, increased use of unlicensed personnel and the negative impact on the quality and safety of patient care have been ANA's priority issues since 1994. ANA works on these issues every day of the year, through a multi-level, strategic campaign that includes public education, publicity, lobbying, research and coalition building at both the national and state levels.

In December 1995, after careful assessment of the environment, ANA decided that participation in the 1996 march was not the best strategic use its resources at the current time. As the oldest and largest organization for registered nurses, ANA is routinely asked to participate in numerous demonstrations, coalitions and other cooperative ventures. We have to weigh carefully which events we participate in, based on a strategic assessment of the event and our own resources. While holding no argument with the goals of the second Nurses' March on Washington in as many years, we decided not to participate in this event.

ANA explained this to the March organizers, emphasized that we were not by any means opposing the March, and also explained that each state nurses association (SNA) would make its own decision regarding whether it wanted to participate in this year's march. Ultimately, none of them decided to do so.

ANA continues to forge an aggressive effort at the federal level, posting multiple successes in a challenging 104th Congress. In addition, major issues in the development and implementation of health care policy continue to unfold at the state and local level. ANA continues to work with state nurses associations to address threats to nursing practice, such as state legislative initiatives to develop institutional licensure. ANA's dedication and hard work have produced several recent major successes. Across America, as nurses celebrate National Nurses Week, they can rally around these hard-won victories:

• On April 30, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) introduced The Patient Safety Act, H.R. 3355. This bill, the first of its kind, developed with ANA's support, calls for public access to information about nurse staffing and care givers' qualifications, "whistle blower" protections for nurses who speak out on behalf of patient care issues, and review of the impact of proposed mergers and acquisitions of health care institutions on patient health and safety.
• ANA continues aggressively to pursue efforts to resolve the issues raised by a 1994 Supreme Court decision which ruled that registered nurses may be ineligible for the protection of the National Labor Relations Act, including the right to speak out about unsafe patient conditions. As a result of ANA's and the SNAs' hard work, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in February that upholds nurses' rights to be protected by federal labor law.
• In March, ANA activated its grassroots network to defeat an amendment to the Immigration Act, sponsored by the American Hospital Association, which would have revived the H-1A visa program for foreign nurses. Due to ANA's swift, overwhelming response, the House of Representatives voted down the amendment, thus preserving job opportunities for U.S. staff nurses.
• ANA has been an outspoken critic of Congressional plans to slash the Medicare and Medicaid programs. ANA believes these measures would impact all Americans, and that they will reduce access to care and cause the quality of care to deteriorate, a trend that is already apparent as hospitals reduce staff and abandon standards in an effort to cut costs. Activism by ANA's grassroots network, N-STAT, helped to defeat the GOP's attempts to radically change these programs.
• ANA has reached tens of millions of consumers, through its two-year "Every Patient Deserves a Nurse" campaign. This has included countless stories in a variety of national print and broadcast media such as Family Circle magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, "The CBS Evening News," and, most recently, a four-part investigative series in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and an article, "What You Must Know Before You Go to the Hospital" in the March 1996 issue of Redbook magazine. In addition, its efforts have resulted in many, many stories in local newspapers and on radio and television.
• ANA is a lead organization in the national Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care. The coalition's goal is to make quality protection the top issue in health care. This group includes such heavy hitters as the American Association of Retired Persons, Families USA, and the National Council on Aging.

ANA believes that multiple strategies by a range of organizations and the activism of thousands of nurses and consumers must be brought to bear to move public opinion and stimulate public policy makers to take action to make health care institutions accountable for the care they provide and to stem the tide of declining quality of care. To that end, we wish the march's organizers and participants great success.

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