The new MNA: A message from the new president
By Denise C. Garlick, R.N.

“There is no progress without struggle” 

I am honored and humbled to serve as your president. I am confident because I share this responsibility with so many committed, caring individuals in every facet of our association. It is with pride that I serve on the new MNA Board of Directors with the following officers;

Peggy O’Malley, vice president. With many years of staff nurse experience, Peg is a well-known nurse leader on the local, state and national level. She also is well known within the MNA and within the broader healthcare arena working with knowledge, passion and commitment on issues of cost, access and quality. She is an ever-vigilant patient advocate. 

Kathy Sperrazza, secretary. With many years of staff nurse experience, Kathy is an experienced leader. As a BWH Committee member, officer, and chairperson, she led the nurses to the stunning strike vote to defend and uphold quality patient care. Additionally, she has advocated for nurses in this state and in the nation on the issue of indoor air quality, and the broader scope of occupational health and safety.

Liz Joubert, treasurer. With many years of staff nurse experience, Liz has been a diligent and conscientious advocate for nurses in her role as Carney Hospital chairperson and committee member and served on the MNA Cabinet for Labor Relations..

Members who also the comprise the Board of Directors are Patti Healey (District 1) a staff nurse at BWH, and a courageous and bold leader for nurses. Nora Watts (District 2) a staff nurse and former chair of the bargaining unit at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Stephanie Stevens (District 3) a staff OR nurse and co-chair of the Jordan Hospital Bargaining Unit. Norma Ouellette (District 4) with years of staff nurse experience, Norma is now a maternal-child health nurse practitioner. Barry Adams (District 5) with several years of staff nurse experience, was the driving force in MNA’s ability to advocate for equal accountability, safe systems of care and whistleblower legislation. The at-large directors are Sandy Eaton, Mary Goodwin and Jeanine Williams. Sandy has years of staff nurse experience and has also exhibited leadership within MNA including chair of the Cabinet for Labor Relations. Sandy is a tireless advocate for justice in the health care arena. Mary, a veteran of Unit 7, has served in many leadership roles in her workplace and within MNA. Jeannine, also a veteran of Unit 7, has demonstrated leadership through the years within her workplace and MNA and is tenacious in her advocacy of nurses. 

I am a diploma nurse (New England Baptist Hospital, 1975). I worked actively as a staff nurse for 21 years. For eight years while having three babies, I pursued my BSN at Fitchburg State College (1984; summa cum laude). I have served on the local level with The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Bargaining Unit Negotiating Committee; the state level with the Cabinet for Labor Relations, as director, and then treasurer. At the national level, I have served as an MNA Delegate to the ANA House of Delegates. I have also served on the Institute of Collective Bargaining (vice chair) and the Committee on Bylaws and have logged hundreds of hours on task forces and committees related to health and safety, staffing principles and the task force on unlicensed personnel. 

In the past year, I facilitated the BORN (Board of Registration in Nursing) Reform Committee and I was thrilled to be named an “Honorary St. Vincent’s Nurse,” having actively participated during their strike as well as participated in multiple initiatives of the Cabinet for Labor Relations which includes our major goal of the year 2000 — disaffiliation from the ANA to strengthen and empower the MNA. Other issues which have required considerable work and learning of new skills include dealing proactively with the issue of our healthcare system in crisis, whether it be current or impending. As well as our profession on the brink of extinction, with nurses in untenable work environments and dysfunctional systems of care with our patients at risk.

My principles of service to MNA

In 1999, having received the MNA Judith Shindhul Rothschild Award, I shared these thoughts which continue to be the principles of my service to the MNA. A portion is excerpted below;

….. I hold myself accountable to the nurse in our union working tonight. And that nurse may be a man or a woman, young or old, (probably about 45.) Perhaps, she is doing mandatory overtime after scrambling on the phone to make emergency arrangements for her children. Most assuredly that nurse is working in a situation that has become unsafe for her patients and puts her license and livelihood in peril at a time when she carries the benefits for her family. She doesn’t care about this award and she might not even remember that we are all down here tonight; but she is depending on us all the same. She needs to know that she is getting a bang for her MNA buck because that money could be used to pay for nursery school money or gallons of milk, or college tuition. And she has earned it in a way that takes all the strength and stamina; mental and physical, that she can muster. She needs the resources that MNA money buys to advance the ideals she believes, to honor her values, provide the protections she needs, and increase our numbers so that will bring more strength to her voice. She needs us to unequivocally state that unlicensed people should not be giving meds, that the Board of Registration in Nursing has abdicated its responsibility to the public: our present and potential patients; by protecting the designers and implementers of unsafe care systems while punishing the direct provider when she inevitably may fail. She deserves to have us advocate for healthy and safe workplaces because- she’s worth it. She needs us all to recognize that our past is not our potential and declare that unions are the way that professional nurses will find their voice to speak on their own behalf; to make a better society; and on behalf of patients to protect them from the ravages of a healthcare system out of control. She needs to know what we know, that we lead only in her name, that we are responsible not to the politicians and beaucrats we meet; but to her. And we need to know that personal comfort in discussions and political posturing among peers only translates in her language into one word. She needs to see demonstrated that the MNA is committed to advancing principles not people .

Be the change you want to see in the world. 

What to expect from the new MNA

We will tell the truth. For much too long “so-called” nursing leaders have attempted to shield the public from the atrocities that are occurring in the health care arena. They framed this health-care industry bias as a desire not to frighten the public. Well, I have news— the public is already frightened. The public is looking for leadership to solve this crisis that affects every man, woman and child in this country. Recently, nurses received the highest credibility rating in this country. The nurses that the public is referring to are “their” nurses. The nurse at the bedside; the one who comes in the middle of the night when the call bell is rung; the one who floats around them as they recover from anesthesia, and the one who holds their hand as the hear the word “cancer” explode in their mind. The school nurse who is a vigilant presence for their children, and the visiting nurse who arrives to change the deep and ugly wound; the hospice nurse who cradles their loved one as they die, and the labor and delivery nurse who breathes every breath with them. The public wants the nurses they trust to tell the truth. We cannot identify solutions until we have the courage to label the problems. In a clear and unambiguous voice, the MNA will address the issues of healthcare that are ratcheting down the pressure on nurses, the profession and our patients. We will strive to protect nurses and improve the systems in which they work, taking care of nurses so that they can take care of patients. The issue of the nurse shortage is real, it’s here, it’s now, and it is nothing less than a public health crisis. Now, let’s talk solutions.

We will act. Not just react. This will require a vision of the future, so as to derail proposals that mask the symptoms but do not address the cause. For example, the hiring of unlicensed personnel instead of eradicating the work conditions that make it untenable for nurses to remain in their chosen profession. We will be committed to organizing to protect nurses in this healthcare environment. Furthermore, contract language must be negotiated, to enhance the profession not only entice nurses to “stick it out a little longer.” This will demand a commitment to the future from all of us. We will actively pursue state legislation on nurse staffing and federal legislation on mandatory overtime. We will fight for real and fundamental systemic change. With our fight for Question 5, we were within 4 percent of bringing universal access to the commonwealth of Massachusetts. We can and will do better. In the coming year, passage of our nursing sufficiency bill, providing safe staffing levels in all health care settings is our number one priority if we want to recruit and retain nurses into our profession. If we do not do this will failed in our role as patient advocates.

We will actively support the members’ efforts to disaffiliate from the ANA. The recent campaign to disaffiliate from the ANA ripped the veneer of collegiality from the various agendas individual nurses choose to serve. The ANA, in its conduct of its campaign to stop disaffiliation, demonstrated that it values profit-driven decisions; it adopts a moderate stance and advocate compromise. Furthermore, the ANA posture and actions to our Board of Directors; other volunteer elected leaders and membership was of a nature so unacceptable and so disrespectful that it is clear that it was not our people or our principles that mattered—but simply our money. This is a rift beyond repair.

We will seek to develop alliances and coalitions with like – minded nurses across this country. Remember, 93 percent of the nurses in this country do NOT belong to the ANA and many nurses within the ANA, like Maine, are agitating for progressive change. We are told that unity means standing with 7 percent of the nurses. We are interested in the 93 percent who may be seeking unity with nurses and are willing to defend the profession and advocate for patients. Together we will develop ways that are pro-active and will call for measures that not only may bring new students to the profession but also enhance measures that will retain nurses in the profession. These measures need to improve not only the image of nurses but must also improve the conditions in which nurses toil. We will actively and aggressively resist options that remove the nurse from the bedside and distance nurses from their patients. 

We will change the future as we pursue solutions to protect the essence of nursing. 

We will make history.