Posted by
PerfectMangoTree on Thursday, September 17, 2009 4:21:26 PM
I am a concerned nursing student in Orange County, California. I watched the president of the American Nursing Association speak before Obama last week and was very alarmed at what she said and how corrupt the ANA truly is. I have a lot of concerns with this because the president of the ANA lied through the entirety of her speech.
http://www.cspan.org/Watch/Media/2009/09/10/HP/R/22969/Lawmakers+React+to+Presidents+Health
That is a link to the speech, including what the ANA president said.
At time marker 00:27, the President of the ANA states that the ANA represents the interests of the nations 2.9 million nurses. This organization DOES NOT represent the interests of all 2.9 million nurses in this country, most nurses do not belong to this corrupt organization. Most nurses belong to their speciality organization, and those organizations do not get political.
When you look around the ANA website (
www.nursingworld.org) and go to their FAQ section you find this interesting tidbit:
http://www.nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/FAQs.aspx
"Q - How many members does the ANA have? What is the membership of ANA?
There are numerous ways to join ANA. ANA has 51 constituent member associations (CMAs) and through those CMAs individuals also belong to ANA. Individuals in some states can also join ANA directly as ANA Direct Members. ANA’s third individual membership type is Individual Affiliate, which is a web-based only membership. Membership in these categories adds up to almost 180,000 individual registered nurses. In addition, ANA has 23 of the specialty nursing associations who belong to ANA as
Organizational Affiliates and one Workplace Advocacy Affiliate."
So if you take the number of 2.9 million RNs in the US (2 million, 900 thousand) and divide it by the 180,000 members of the ANA...
It comes out to ONLY 6.2% of RNs in the US who are part of this organization.
HOW DO THEY HAVE SO MUCH POWER?
The ANA only represents 6.2% of all RNs in the US and yet the president of the ANA claims that they represent the interests of America's 2.9 million nurses?
This makes no sense!
At time marker 2:38 she says:
"On behalf of America's nurses and the patients that we serve, thank you President Obama, for speaking out for the millions who are left behind by our nations broken system. Thank you for fighting for meaningful health insurance reform. Nurses will stay on the front lines of reform because the cost of in action is just too great."
Once again, how can this corrupt organization speak for American nurses when they represent less than 10% of all nurses!
As a side note: The ANA is highly union-oriented, I wonder if they have anything to do with ACORN, SEIU etc.
If you look in the FAQ section of the ANA site (see link provided above) you see that they have a membership due of $179 per year for the organization.
180,000 multiplied by $179 is $32,222,000 in dues by members per year. Where is that money going to?
As stated on the website, they do not send reps out to speak with nursing school classes. You would think that this organization would want to push being in the ANA because it is the American Nurses Association and has so much clout with Obama.
Please look into this, because many nurses do not support the ANA nor do they support Obama and his decision to have a single-payer governmental plan. As nurses (and nursing student) we know there needs to be changes within the health care system but another government plan is not the way to go. The government already has two health care systems that it runs (not counting the VA) with Medicare and Medicaid and both of those are so messed up that they probably will go bankrupt in 10 years because we do not have the money to support them anymore. Just the amount of paperwork that nurses need to do is ridiculous, let alone the time that is spent making sure our patients get the care and treatment they need.
In addition to the union information...
The ANA has created a union that is in bed with the AFL-CIO and they want to create a super union for nurses (see above link).
^Main site for the RN union
Where I found my information:
Please, please, please, look into this! The union ties of ACORN, SEIU and the AFL-CIO go much farther than we think!!!