National Nurses United

Profile_Jan 2/24/11 9:10 PM Page 14 R egistered nurse diane goddeeris has always been a champion of nurses for as long as she could remember. As a young girl who needed a series of surgeries—starting from when she was a toddler—to properly align her eyes, she never forgot the nurses who watched over and comforted her. "This is back when they put you to sleep with ether and a rubber face mask, and when they didn't allow parents to stay with their kids in the hospital," remembered Goddeeris. "I was scared and alone. But the positive thing was the nurses. The nurses took care of you. They'd scoop me up and I'd sit with them and play with them. They were very influential." When Goddeeris declared while growing up that she'd like to become a nurse someday, her father constantly dissuaded her, saying that she "was too smart to be a nurse" and that she should become a doctor or a lawyer. She always replied, "Nurses are smart, too!" It's a good thing for the nurses' movement that Goddeeris didn't listen to her dad. Today, Goddeeris is an obstetrics informatics nurse at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich., a longtime nursing leader in her state with the Michigan Nurses Association, and a national nurs- Rising to the Occasion Michigan RN Diane Goddeeris takes her responsibility as a nurse seriously, whether it's helping lead the national nurses' movement or serving on her city council. By Lucia Hwang ing figure as a member of National Nurses United's executive council. She was instrumental in the late 2000s in helping the Michigan Nurses Association refocus itself on staff nursing issues by breaking away from the American Nurses Association and in the 2009 formation of National Nurses United. In addition to these roles, Goddeeris is an elected member of East Lansing's city council and its mayor pro tem, where she grapples with issues such as high unemployment and uses her healthcare expertise to help keep the city's healthcare costs down. "Nurses are not silly angels. A nurse is a strong, smart person making life-and-death decisions," said Goddeeris. "And NNU is the nurses' movement now, with nurses united across the country fighting for the same things: safe, quality patient care and safe working conditions." Goddeeris grew up in the Detroit area and was among the first generation in her family to attend college. While getting her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Michigan, she was attracted to the obstetrics field because "it wasn't routine, and nurses had to make decisions on a dime." After graduation, Goddeeris worked in Wisconsin for a couple of years as a labor and delivery 14 N AT I O N A L N U R S E nurse. While she was there, the nurses decided to unionize. Goddeeris' father worked as a union printer, so she knew from an early age that "you had to have a union if you wanted a voice in your practice and if you want to make changes." She remembered that unions were part of her family's general dinner table discussions, and whenever the printers union held a meeting, her father always made sure to attend. But instead of helping the RNs, the Wisconsin Nurses Association decided to discontinue its collective bargaining operations, so the nurses formed their own individual group with the help of the teachers union. That was Goddeeris' first inkling that something was amiss with the state nursing organization and its umbrella group, the American Nurses Association. "That seed was planted. I thought, 'What in the world was going on there?'" she said. "Everybody is supposed to be working together." Toward the end of 1979, Goddeeris moved back to Michigan with her family and continued working part time as a labor and delivery nurse at Sparrow Hospital while raising three children. Though she was not one of the main organizers, she supported suc- 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 JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2011

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