A prominent ANA-MA member who thought she was anonymously trolling the comments section of my post about her organization (“Who exactly does the American Nurses Association represent?”) ended up providing compelling evidence to support the charge that her organization represents the interests of hospitals, nurse managers, and nurse educators, NOT working bedside nurses, and bolstering my sense that the tactics of the well-funded opponents of Question One are dishonest and dishonorable.
Calling herself “RN=RealNurseforNo!” this prominent member of ANA-MA who is neither a working nurse nor a member of the Massachusetts Nurse’s Association, wrote the following in reply to my thoughts about the quality and credibility of her anonymous commentary:
“To claim that “86% of nurses in MA are voting Yes” based on flawed methodology with selection bias is not only misleading, it’s blatantly lying to the public and should make everyone stop and think about why the MNA has to lie.”
On her anonymity “RN=RealNurseforNo!” wrote,
“I chose to use a pseudonym because as a MNA member I have been subject to retaliation and bullying on a very personal level when I expressed an opinion not consistent with the union’s position.”
Reading these comments, knowing that the commenter was not who she wanted readers to believe she was, made me angry and sad. Of course, the only blatant dishonesty in my piece was her contribution to the comments section, which I sincerely believe “should make everyone stop and think about why [a prominent ANA-MA member] has to lie” in order to persuade voters to oppose Question One.
The organizations pouring money into the dishonest effort to confuse voters about where bedside nurses stand on Question One are doing no favors for the folks whose interests they actually represent. The interests of hospital administrators, nurse managers, and nurse educators deserve honest representation. As for the American Nurses Association-Massachusetts, I hope its leaders take a good hard look at how their approach to political advocacy undermines their credibility. Fostering the misconception that the ANA-MA is a nurse’s union representing the best interests of working nurses is wrong. It’s wrong in media advertising and it’s wrong in the comments section of online publications.