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Workplace Issues

The Commission on Workplace Advocacy was established by the ANA House of Delegates in 1999. The Commission was charged with addressing the needs of individual nurses in the workplace that were not represented by collective bargaining, and to establish and implement an effective workplace advocacy program within the American Nurses Association.  Nine appointed members began to meet that fall, and discuss issues facing nurses in the workplace.

In June, 2003, the ANA House of Delegates voted to create a new membership category titled Associate Organizational Member (AOM) and the Center for American Nurses (CAN) was accepted as the single AOM to handle issues of workplace advocacy.  The United American Nurses (UAN) was accepted as the single AOM to handle workplace issues utilizing collective bargaining (union) strategies.  In 2003, the Center for American Nurses incorporated as a professional association.  (Atteberry, 2004)

The mission of the Center for American Nurses is to create a community of nursing organizations that serves individual, non-union nurses by providing programs, tools, and policies that address their workplace concerns.  One of the directions CAN has taken is meeting these objectives is publishing Nursing That Works articles that can be dropped in to newsletters and web sites by the individual states or constituent member associations (CMA’s). 

The articles below appear on the CAN website at: www.centerforamericannurses.org.

CAN ARTICLES:  Nursing that Works #2 and Nursing that Works #5

The article, Preventing Violence in the Healthcare Workplace by CAN Board of Directors member Vicki Carroll RN. MSN, relates to the critical issue facing nurses and other healthcare workers, workplace violence.

The most recent Nursing That Works article is by Stephanie Tabone, RN, MSN is titled, Data Suggest  Nurse Fatigue Threatens Patient Safety.