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Fighting the good fight: Nurses who advocate for change

Money for healthcare, NOT war." The sign, rendered in large black letters, loomed just above a contingent of nurses from the California Nurses Association during an anti-war rally held in San Francisco on March 19, 2005—just one portion of a "global day of protest" marking the second anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Among the many CNA members who felt obligated to protest the war was Deborah Burger, RN, the association's president. To her, activism is an integral part of a nurse's role.

Burger started on the path toward advocacy in 1984, after being turned down for a leave of absence from her job as a staff nurse in an intensive care nursery following her husband's death. When a labor representative went to bat for her and got the leave approved, she developed an appreciation for nurses who work to change labor laws.

In the two decades since, Burger has fought tirelessly on behalf of labor and many other causes. These days she works part time as a diabetes case manager for Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa while serving her second term as CNA president.

Although Burger may be one of the more prominent nurse advocates, she's far from alone. Countless numbers of nurses speak out on issues as varied as gun control and smoking cessation. And their efforts bring a great deal of credibility to these causes. Indeed, the American public has consistently cited nursing as the most honest and ethical profession in a survey conducted every year by The Gallup Organization.

If the idea of lending time and energy to a good cause intrigues you, then check out these nurses' stories. They may inspire you to get involved.

Strong feelings against the war

Why did Burger align herself with anti-war efforts? The simple answer is passion. She is passionate in her belief that dollars spent on the war in Iraq could be better spent elsewhere.

"Nurses are caring for victims of the war—not only the military personnel but their families as well. And funds diverted to pay for the war aren't available for helping victims of Hurricane Katrina or addressing other public health issues," she says.

"We're concerned, too, that people who have gone over to Iraq are now suffering without benefit of adequate medical and mental healthcare," Burger adds. "One thing rarely talked about is that budget cuts have reduced benefits to veterans. Nurses can see that military personnel really aren't being taken care of once they get back home."

For these reasons, Burger believes nurses should be opposed to the war in Iraq. She intends to keep fighting until all U.S. troops return home and urges many more of her colleagues to join the protest.

Clear the air to halt lung CA

For Linda Sarna, RN, DNSc, FAAN, advocacy means educating nurses about smoking cessation—and through them, the rest of society. Her passion to end smoking grew naturally out of her experiences as an oncology nurse and a professor at UCLA School of Nursing in Los Angeles.

Like Burger, Sarna believes nurses can and should use their clout to positively influence others. But a surprising number of nurses just don't know how to help patients quit or how to kick the habit themselves, she says.

According to the American Lung Association, 87% of lung cancers come directly from tobacco use. With that in mind, Sarna and fellow nurse Stella Aguinaga Bialous, RN, DrPH, a tobacco-control consultant in San Francisco, held a summit at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore ways to interest their colleagues in tobacco control. Impressed with their work, the foundation invited the pair to apply for a grant and ultimately funded the Tobacco Free Nurses Nursing Leadership project, a joint effort between UCLA and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

The Tobacco Free Nurses Web site ( http://www.tobaccofreenurses.org/) which came out of that project, offers smoking cessation support and resources to help nurses learn about evidence-based treatments that both nurses and patients can benefit from. Sarna, Bialous, and two other nurses—Mary Ellen Wewers, RN, PhD, and Erika Froelicher, RN, PhD, of the Ohio State University and UCLA schools of nursing, respectively—contributed information for the Web site.

"We're not a lobbying organization," Sarna notes. "We focus on teaching others and helping them understand the policies that are in place from a healthcare perspective." They do this by publishing articles in professional journals and presenting their findings at meetings of the American Public Health Association and other healthcare groups.

Sarno realizes that because "nurses are valued and respected, patients really listen to them. So they have opportunities to share information about the dangers of tobacco and secondhand smoke every day."

Gun control: Into the line of fire

Some nurses who venture into activism eventually make their way to the political arena. One woman who went that route is Jeanne Kirkton, RN, CRNA, a former surgical ICU nurse who became a gun control advocate after retiring from active patient care in 1992.

"As a nurse in intensive care and later as a nurse anesthetist, I saw so much gun-related violence," Kirkton says. So when the Million Mom March movement emerged several years ago, she was drawn to it. "Gun control struck me as a commonsense cause that I could get behind, not something radical."

The Million Mom March was the brainchild of Donna Dees-Thomases, a mother from New Jersey who was outraged by a shooting at a California day camp in 1999. Dees-Thomases channeled her energies into bringing hundreds of thousands of women to Washington, D.C., on Mothers' Day 2000 to protest a lack of effective national gun control laws. (The group— http://www.millionmommarch.org/—has since merged with the Brady campaign and has chapters nationwide.)

Kirkton joined the march, and later decided to tackle the issue closer to home by running for a seat in the Missouri senate. "I fought tooth and nail to keep Missouri from becoming a state that allowed people to carry concealed weapons without a permit," she says.

Although Kirkton lost both her bid for political office in 2003 and the fight to bar concealed weapons in the state, she reminds nurses that they can still help protect patients. "I don't know how many times I've read about people who've bought handguns without knowing the first thing about them," she says. "They often don't realize that even though a gun may appear to be empty when they get it, there could be a bullet in the chamber.

"Many people have been killed that way," Kirkton adds. "So one thing nurses can do is talk with patients about safe gun storage. To see a person—especially a child—killed by a gun is an awful thing. But nurses can do a lot to educate the public about this."

If causes like gun control resonate with you, it may be time to get involved. Check out opportunities available through your state nurses association. Some focus solely on issues that affect nurses in the state, but others, like the CNA, take positions on a wider range of issues.

The ANA actively encourages nurses to make their voices heard in the federal and state political arenas. Visit http://www.ana.org/gova/ to learn more. Perhaps now is the time to take your role as advocate beyond the four walls of your institution.