National Nurses United

Profile:FINAL 10/15/08 11:09 PM Page 15 by attending educational classes, but in large part she was busy rais- We all suffer the same problems, whether you're a 20-bed hospital in ing her two sons and working additional jobs in a nursing home and Maine or Texas." For the first time, Maine nurses are actually staying to work in as an RN consultant. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Caristi did not like where nurs- Maine, instead of being forced to travel to other states in search of ing was headed. Hospitals were reshaping themselves to conform to better wages and working conditions. "We had this brain drain going the cost-cutting demands of health maintenance organizations, or on," noted Caristi. "Why would you stay and work in a place with no hope of a raise?" HMOs. The next item on the agenda for Maine nurses is to pass ratios legis"They were turning nurses into Stepford nurses," said Caristi. "'The DRG [diagnosis-related group] says you will do this. You have lation. They came close in 2007, and will try again next year after more 3.5 days to get this thoracic patient in and out the door.' These things supportive state legislators are hopefully elected in November 2008. Finally, Caristi says, Maine nurses want to pass legislation creatwere mandated by people who had minimal patient contact. They ing a single-payer healthcare system. With treated nursing like an assembly line even Maine's high rate of rural uninsured, people though we're dealing with human beings." who work seasonally in the lobster and fishMeanwhile, nurses were being laid off left "They treated nursing like ing industries and subsist on poverty-level and right, and schools of nursing were shutan assembly line even incomes, it's more obvious to Maine nurses ting their doors. though we're dealing why such a system is needed. Any other proCaristi began to get more involved with with human beings." posal is just plugging a finger in a dike that's her union to combat these assaults on nursing, springing millions of other leaks. but found quickly that the American Nurses "I am an advocate for my patients and even when I'm no longer Association, the national umbrella organization to which MSNA paid annual dues, offered little help. Not only were the leaders of ANA out of working, still will be forever," said Caristi. "I feel that most of the touch with the concerns of bedside nurses because they no longer time, we're letting our patients down. It's an uphill fight against docpracticed bedside nursing, many were actually managers who support- tors, against hospitals, and against insurance companies. But we ed nursing reorganization to save money and keep hospital budgets in nurses have to be at the wheel." I line. "These people had alphabet soups behind their names," joked Caristi, "but had not taken care of a physical patient in years." Lucia Hwang is editor of Registered Nurse. If Maine nurses wanted to protect their patients and their practice, Caristi and others decided, the first step would be to get rid of the ANA. So in 2001, MSNA voted to disaffiliate from the group, and then turned its attention to brokering alliances with other like-minded RNs. The group that stood out was the California Nurses Association, which in 2004 expanded nationally by forming the National Nurses Organizing Committee. "We knew we needed to be national," said Caristi. "We couldn't Name: Maureen Caristi, RN stay up in our little corner of New England." CNA/NNOC's progresFacility: Eastern Maine sive agenda, organizing successes, and impressive resources and Medical Center infrastructure attracted MSNA. Affiliation talks got serious in 2006, Unit: Respiratory and and in October of that year, MSNA members approved a merger with thoracic surgery CNA/NNOC. Nursing for: 20 years The decision was the right one, reports Caristi. When Eastern On CNA/NNOC board Maine Medical Center nurses opened bargaining for a new agreesince: 2007 ment last year, they had more resources to draw upon and contracts Sign: Leo upon which to model their proposals. For the first time, EMMC RNs Nursing pet peeve: Whiners won a contract establishing a professional practice committee – Favorite work snack: Cheese something that had long been a standard in California contracts – and and crackers achieved other important language on safe staffing, the use of techLatest work accomplishment: Preparing ratio nology, and protections for nurses against reclassification as "manlegislation for Maine and helping organize the agers" who could not exercise their collective bargaining rights. PPC at work Nurses also got decent raises. The EMMC contract set an important Color of favorite scrubs: Red precedent for Maine; over the next year, as other MSNA contracts Hobbies: Kayaking and reading came up for renegotiation, nurses at other facilities won many of the Favorite musician: Janis Joplin same protections and benefits, upping the bar for nurses and patients Latest book read: Roses Are Red by James Patterson. across the state. "I love mysteries." "The Maine employers really tried to cast CNA/NNOC as 'outSecret talent unrelated to nursing: Singing siders' against themselves, the hometown people," said Caristi. "But it didn't work. The nurses have now realized they're not in a vacuum. Profile OCTOBER 2008 W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G REGISTERED NURSE 15

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