National Nurses United

N ancy hagans, rn, and president of New York State Nurses Association, said she can't remember a time when it wasn't simply reflex for her to stand up and speak out for what is fair and just. "I was always the vocal one," she said with an easy smile. "When I see something, I just can't just sit there and not say something." That outspokenness will be useful in Hagans' role as the newest member of the Council of Presidents for National Nurses United (NNU), where she will add her voice to a powerful chorus of nurse advocates leading the largest nurses union and professional associa- tion in the United States. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) voted to affiliate with NNU in October 2022, and Hagans became an NNU president in December. Born to a middle-class family in Haiti, Hagans and her family followed a well-worn path from Port-au-Prince to Brooklyn in the 1970s. Her father worked as an electrician and her mother cared for the family of 12. In the United States, a pre-teen young Hagans was tapped to help her brothers and sisters maneuver through the unfa- miliar workings of American life and it fell to Nancy to serve as translator for her parents and defender of the family. "It was very difficult to learn English, but I had to do it quick." Language was not the only difficulty she and her family faced; they also found themselves confronting racism and xenophobia. "We [Haitians] were treated as if we were from another planet," recalled Hagans. That prejudice against Haitians grew exponentially in the 1980s after the Food and Drug Administration designated Haitians in the United States as a high-risk group for AIDS and prohibited them from donating blood. "You were discriminated against at school, people lost their jobs," said Hagans. "I will never forget, I took my mother to get blood work at a clinic, and the person said, 'Be careful! She is Haitian, make sure you wear gloves!' It was the most hurtful thing that someone could say to my mother." Hagans responded in an instant, "I told them, 'Don't ever treat my mother like that.'" Then she took action, taking part in what Hagans called the Hai- tian Revolution in New York City. "That's one thing with Haitian culture, we like to organize." Hagans was one of the 50,000 people who marched across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan in April 1990 to protest the federal designation that unfairly stigmatized Haitians. Days after the mas- sive protest, the FDA announced it would abandon the policy. "It felt great," said Hagans, recalling the victory. It confirmed for a 19-year-old Hagans the power of many and her conviction that, through organizing, the righteous win. * * * * * H agans is quick to see the big picture, but she also under- stands the power that lies in the details. Confronted with a new challenge or situation, she reads the playbook, knows the con- tract and makes sure she understands the fine print, and she follows the instructions. As a young nurse, Hagans was encouraged by a doctor to work on the surgical intensive care unit. Yet when she went for her interview, the manager said she only wanted Hagans for the night shift although there were day shifts open. "Historically, someone who looked like me should not be working days. It was the early nineties, back then the Black and Brown nurses worked nights, and the other nurses worked days," said Hagans. But when Hagans got her first nursing job at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, a union hospital, she knew to ask for her contract and to read it all the way through. "So I said, 'I read the contract, you cannot deny me.'" While Hagans did get her day shift position, she also became a target of her new boss. Her parents had long told her to keep a record whenever she was wronged, so she did just that until 12 months after she started in the unit, she demanded a meeting with the manager, supervisor, and her union representative. There she listed off her grievances, and threatened to file a civil lawsuit, an idea she got from a cousin who was in law school at the time. The hospital took the threat to heart, and the manager was ter- minated. Her union representative took notice and urged Hagans to become a grievance co-chair. "The more I started doing union things, the more I knew it was the right thing to do." Within months, she ran for the executive committee of Maimo- nides Medical Center where she was the newest and youngest person on the committee when the nurses went on strike in 1998. Barbara Ludwicki, RN was working on the surgical intensive care unit when Hagans started there and she helped mentor the younger nurse. As Ludwicki tells it, Hagans quickly became a first- rate ICU nurse, a fierce patient advocate, and a well-respected resource for other nurses, doctors, and medical staff. "She was a resource to everyone," recalled Ludwicki. "It was frequently, 'Let's run this by Nancy.'" J A N U A R Y | F E B R U A R Y | M A R C H 2 0 2 3 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 15

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