National Nurses United

Profile_1 10/5/10 2:45 PM Page 27 degenerated to the point where there was no longer any cushioning between her disks, and she was in chronic pain. In June 1993, she had spinal fusion surgery. She was finally pain free, but could no longer handle the heavy lifting required in the ICU. After being away from the bedside for two and a half years, she went back to work in the hospital's occupational health department for a while. During her time there, she persuaded Cape Cod to buy a few pieces of lift equipment. She was eventually able to find a nursing position in endoscopy which allowed her to return to patient care, but her days as an ICU RN are over. She misses it to this day and is deeply sad that her "The hospital industry fears us. And they should fear us, back injury keeps away from the kind because people respect us more than them." of nursing she loves best. "I miss how it's fast paced," said Piknick. "I miss taking care of the patients' families, and working with the critical care meds and the thinking." Her first-hand From there, her nurse activism just continued to grow and experience with back injury makes her passionate about winning Piknick began taking on more leadership positions. Like other prosafe lifting legislation in Massachusetts and nationally. Sen. Al fessional nursing associations and unions around the country in the Franken is sponsoring NNU's federal safe lifting bill, S 1788, which 1980s, MNA members were locked in an age-old debate over would require hospitals to invest in the kind of equipment that whether it was "professional" for registered nurses to act as a labor would prevent nurses like Piknick from sustaining career-ending union. This struggle often pitted nursing administrators and educainjuries. tors against bedside, staff nurses. In 1986, the MNA created a branch Looking forward, Piknick believes that the biggest challenge for of the organization called the Cabinet of Labor Relations to deal with NNU is winning the fight against the hospital industry to achieve all collective bargaining issues, and Piknick became the first chair. safe staffing ratios in every state. "The hospital industry is at war Piknick knew where she stood. She had witnessed first hand how with us," she said. "We have to keep organizing everybody." the nurses who shunned the union label were the ones who undermined real efforts to improve the working conditions of bedside nurses. "They interfered in a lot of what we did on staffing, on patient classifica- Lucia Hwang is editor of National Nurse. tion systems, on limiting unlicensed personnel," she remembered. "We were ignored and trivialized and could never ever get anywhere." When the staff nurses realized that people without current bedside experience were the ones drafting staffing ratios legislation, said Piknick, they started seriously considering following the lead taken by the California Nurses Association in 1995 when it disaffiliated from the American Nurses Association to concentrate on rebuilding as an honest-to-god union of and for working, bedside nurses. Name: Beth Piknick, RN After two tries, one in 1999 and the second in 2000, MNA became Facility: Cape Cod Hospital the second state nursing association to detach itself from the ANA. Unit: Endoscopy, previously ICU Piknick mainly worked with her own bargaining unit to support the Nursing for: 39 years strategic move. Immediately after the disaffiliation, she was appointed Sign: Libra to the MNA board and threw herself into achieving Massachusetts' Pet nursing peeve: When I hear nurses' top goal: winning safe RN-to-patient staffing ratios. "We finally a nurse say, "I'm just a nurse." had the freedom to write safe staffing legislation the way we wanted to," Favorite work snack: Potato chips said Piknick. "It is my personal holy grail. I'd like to see it passed before Latest work accomplishment: I die." As MNA president from 2005 to 2009, Piknick often traveled Standing up to physicians who are around the country speaking to other nursing groups about their efforts bullies to win safe staffing, and educating legislators and the media. Color of favorite scrubs: Blue MNA has continually pressed for a staffing ratio bill. In addition Hobbies: I used to have more before I hurt my back, but to ratios, it has also prioritized protections for RNs against workkayaking, swimming, walking place violence (a law was signed this year), and lift teams and equipFavorite movie: Night Shift. It's about two guys who run a ment for safe patient handling. "business" from the city morgue. It sounds morbid, but it's The last priority, safe lifting, hits close to home for Piknick hilarious. because she suffered a debilitating back injury in 1992. On Feb. 17 of Latest book read: The Lost Constitution, by William Martin that year, she was helping another RN return a patient to his bed Secret talent unrelated to nursing: I can sing. I used to sing when she felt her back just give out. Piknick, who stands at 5 feet 11 in a 100-member community chorale. inches, was often called upon by other nurses to help move patients. This time was the proverbial straw on her back. Piknick's spine had involved with the Massachusetts Nurses Association when she appealed to the union for help in returning to her ICU position after the birth of her second child. From there, she started bargaining her hospital's contract as part of the negotiating team. Piknick said she learned a lot sitting at the negotiating table. "I thought, Ah, this is how you advocate for patients and for the profession," she said. Even as a young nurse, she said she "saw that nursing was getting a raw deal." Profile SEPTEMBER 2010 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 AT I O N A L N U R S E 27

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