American Nurses Association endorses Hillary Clinton
February 9th, 2008 7:22 pm by Jason B.In a surprising move that should upset many nurses, the American Nurses Association endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on January 25th, 2008. Needless to say, I am still holding my belief that Barack Obama will best serve the interests of our nation when it comes to healthcare. More criticism to come.
Via press release:
THE AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION ENDORSES
SENATOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY)SILVER SPRING, MD –The Clinton Campaign today announced the endorsement of the American Nurses Association (ANA). The ANA represents the interests of the nation’s 2.9 million registered nurses.
“Too many Americans must do without high quality health care, and this country deserves a president that will make health system reform a priority,” said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR. “Senator Clinton has shown a commitment to implementing real change in our health care system to ensure high quality, affordable and accessible care. She has also recognized the importance of educating, recruiting and retaining, RNs, and the need to improve the nurse’s work environment which includes addressing safe and appropriate staffing. America’s 2.9 million registered nurses represent the largest group of health care professionals. We have long advocated for the critically needed reforms vital to the improvement of health care and will use our power in the voting booth to make health care a priority.”
“I am honored to have the support of the American Nurses Association,” said Clinton. “We owe nurses a great debt of gratitude for the critical role they play every day in providing quality care. As President, I will continue to support efforts to attract and retain qualified nurses, especially in rural and urban areas, and to improve working conditions. I look forward to working with America’s nurses to deliver affordable, quality health care to every American.”
Hillary has a history of working for America’s nurses. In the Senate, Hillary introduced the Nursing Education and Quality of Care Act, which would expand the number of programs that address nursing faculty shortages and increase the supply of nurses in rural areas. As part of the Nurse Reinvestment Act, she helped create grants that expanded nurse Magnet hospitals. Hillary also supported increased funding for both Title VII and Title VIII, which help to address the higher education needs of nurses and nursing faculty. Finally, she has supported programs to attract nurses to the field, including efforts to improve the quality of the working environment for nurses.
Hillary’s American Health Choices Plan will cover all Americans and improve health care by providing consumers new choices, lowering costs and improving quality. Under Hillary’s plan, Americans who like the insurance they have can keep it and stay with their doctor. But Americans who don’t like the coverage they have will be able to pick from the same set of plans Members of Congress choose for themselves. Under Hillary’s plan, insurance companies won’t be able to deny people coverage for a pre-existing condition and tax credits will ensure that working families never have to pay more than a limited percentage of their income for quality health care. People who change jobs will be able to keep their health care.
ANA has been making presidential endorsements since 1984. The endorsement process includes sending a questionnaire on nursing and health care issues to all of the Democratic and Republican candidates, an invitation to all of the democratic and republican candidates for a personal interview and an online survey of ANA’s membership regarding which candidate is most supportive of nursing’s agenda.
# # #
The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation’s 2.9 million registered nurses through its 54 constituent member nurses associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
How quickly many have forgotten that our dear Hillary stated during her husbands 2nd term in office that nurses were paid too much for a job a monkey could do! This nurse does not endorse Hillary Clinton! Speak for yourself ANA!
March 4th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Did Hillary Clinton actually say that? “Nurses are paid too much for a job a monkey could do”. Heard it rumored but was not sure anyone who at least went to high school could make such a statement. I thought she was supposed to be smart. Pls someone, tell me she did not say that!
March 5th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Afaik, she did not, as it likely would have made it into the media in a huge way, but then maybe not…. Since I noticed this blogs sub-title references WSU student activists, perhaps someone can use one of the databases at the library to check. LexisNexis has a publications search which is a ton more comprehensive than most internet search engines.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Here’s what I could find for you guys.
http://idonthateamerica.com/2008/03/10/investigating-the-american-nurses-associations-endorsement-of-hillary-clinton/
March 14th, 2008 at 6:29 am
With healthcare as it is now nurses are stuck in the middle. With a universal healthcare system who will be the ones to explain to our patients that they will not be able to have their procedure due to long waiting lists. It will be us, we are always the ones to deliver difficult news and make excuses. And as mentioned above she had stated that a monkey could do our job and we are overpaid, I don’t know about all of you but I don’t have a couple million sitting around to endorse myself, who is overpaid? This nurse also does not back Hillary!!!!!!
March 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am
It is a very scary thought that the ANA is endorsing someone that has been so disrespectful to nurses. She is well known for her disregard and bad attitude towards nurses. The whole idea of universal healthcare is terrible as well. Not only will it require longer waits for patients for tests and time spent in the ER, but with the increase in our tax dollars to cover it, we may as well work for free. I think that she is fake, and her way of making sure that nurses never see decent wage increases is to institute universal healthcare. There is no way I will back her and honestly if she wins and changes the healthcare system, I will be looking for a new career path.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Yes, Hillary the Monster hates nurses. She said back in 1993, when her father died that nurses were underworked and underpaid. She also said that nurses should not be paid more than $6.00/hour. So take that and see what she will do to help nurses in their plight for justice.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Excuse me,
I meant to say that she said Nurses were OVERPAID!!!!!!!!! Also I lived in England who has socialized medicine and I found a cyst in my breast. Not knowing if it was CANCER….I was told that there was a 6-8 month waiting list to get it checked out. Also they allocate so many operations a year. So if you need a hip replacement and they’ve gone over their allocated hip replacement operation amount, you will not get the operation. Instead they will give you a small car to get around. So I guess they feel a car is more important than an individual’s health. This is true, because this happened to a friend of mine who runs a pub in London, and the man is in severe pain to this day. Alcohol is his only answer for his pain. So this is what you will get with Hillary the Lying Monster.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Do we really have proof that she said these things? I have been an avid supporter of Hillary Clinton. After hearing these alleged comments, however, it has made me feel like I have been punched in the stomach. I feel I work very hard for my money. (I by no means feel I am under-worked and overpaid) I work at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Tx in Labor and Delivery. We deliver 2nd most babies anywhere in the WORLD (about 50 a day). She should come work a day with me! Someone please tell me she did not say these horrible things - and if she did - why in the world would the ANA back her? Help me understand! I want to like Hillary!
April 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
http://www.pixelrn.com/2008/02/did-hillary-clinton-really-say-that-nurses-were-overpaid.html
I’ve been getting a lot of google traffic lately from this particular phrase:
“hillary clinton nurse overpaid”
On first thought you would think I would welcome this traffic, because it might suggest that people are interested in a nurse blogger’s view of politics.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, at all.
The most likely scenario is that someone out there heard that Hillary Clinton had uttered the phrase, “nurses are overpaid and undereducated.” and they are trying to somehow to validate this with a reference. Well, I’m here to tell you that you are not going to find it on this blog, and I don’t think you are going to find an accurate reference anywhere on the Internet, including snopes. If you really are desperate to find a source for this, you’re going to have to do a Lexis Nexis search, because the rumor is that it was said sometime around 1992, before the Internet has bloomed into the enormous melting pot of facts, rants, rumors, and opinions that it is today.
Here’s an idea: Instead of investing your time trying to find a source for this unlikely phrase, why not participate in a discussion about what each candidate has in the works for health care reform?
Hillary Clinton says this.
Barack Obama says he’s going to do this.
and John McCain is planning on doing this.
Which plan do you think could actually work?
April 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
How quickly we forget. Well I have not! I personally witnessed Mrs. Clinton who at the time was chair of the disasterous Health Care Reform Committee her husband had appointed her to make these statements on national television.
Her comments were carried on all the national news services in the form of a video taped press conference aired on the big 3 prime time evening news programs.
I was stunned to hear the President’s wife make these comments to say the very least.
Make no mistake about what she said, I will quote her verbatim, ” registered nurses make too much money.” She went on to state that, ‘part of whats wrong with health care today in this country is that nurses are paid too much.’
Well folks this is still a free country (in some limited respects) and I chose to exercise my right to withdraw my support of the ANA which I am sad now to say is supposed to be my profession’s representative organization. I will no longer support this organization with my hard earned nursing dollars in their clearly naive and short sited approach to advancing the agenda of professional nursing in this country.
The ANA leadership may be mesmerized by this candidate and her alleged support of nurses issues but I am not.
I believe there is more to this candidate’s personal agenda than the ANA realizes and I predict if this candidate is elected our issues will quickly take a back seat
and be relegated to ‘long term care before dying a slow death secondary to provider neglect’.
I beg you younger nurses to not play games with our country’s historical facts and attempt to deny what really did happen and what really was said. This strikes me as
naive as younger German citizens who have within the last two decades espoused the
unconscionable notion that Hitler never killed any jews.
Come on folks, grow up, education and awareness is hard but ignorance and denial is dangerous.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
How soon we forget the derogratory and accusatory remarks Hillary made regarding nurses. Hillary Clinton had made several derogatory remarks about nurses. Among the remarks made referenced nurses sitting and eating instead of delivering nursing care. She also stated we were the cause of escalating health care cost because we were overpaid for the work we do. Too make a long story short, Laura Gasparis brought her comments to light and after nurses jumped on it Hillary eventually apologized. Do I think it changed her opinion of us…absolutely not. However, it did let her know that we were offended and our voices did count. It also helped let her know she needed to rethink her campaigning strategy. She now hypocritically acknowledges us and even pretends to care, which I have to say I actually find more insulting. However, the most offensive action is that the ANA has endorsed her!!! I’m appalled.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:00 am
John -Can Hillary have an opinion, not in your commie world? I work at the hospital too and have become very familiar with the typical nurse routine. I too think they are overpaid internet surfers *from my observations, which is my honest observation. I’m sure some are wonderful hard workers, but my observations are that the young ones are typically in good shape physically, but as they age in their career, they typically seem to become over weight, dare I say a lot are obese? To much internet surfing and candy bar munching throughout those long mights of inactivity? Just dwell in any unit hallway and you’ll see what I mean, young are fit, the older are not fit, hmmmmmm -correlation? Step into reality… there are way more people who get paid way less who work a lot harder. jd
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
[…] Obama. This was in contrast to the American Nurses Association (ANA) who previously endorsed Hillary Clinton. It sounds like the ANA is moving toward Obama now, […]