NUR 605 Week 6 Assignment 1: Leadership and Success of the California Nurses’ Association

NUR 605 Week 6 Assignment 1: Leadership and Success of the California Nurses’ Association

Nursing has come a long way. From the time when no one gave an ear to what the nurses said, even though it was evident that their contribution to healthcare was much needed, to today being acknowledged as essential workers, that everyone looks up to and respects. I will cover how they came to start the California Nurses’ Association (CNA), and how they finally achieved their lifelong dream of earning the respect and getting to take care of the patients as they had wanted all along.

Dantonio et al., (2010) acknowledges that nurses in the early years faced invisibility and gender biases. Women in the 1900s only had 3 professions to choose from: teacher, secretary or nurse. However, we learned that as nurses, their contributions or voices were never heard. There was no respect for nurses, even after serving in world war two (WW II), they still did not get the hospitals to acknowledge their services. To the administrators and doctors, nursing meant organization, education and licensing, and they did not see those qualities in women. Women were never thought to do anything respectable in the professional world. They were seen as wives, mothers and just care takers, nothing more.

California Nurses Association was formed in 1903 under the leadership of Rose Ann DeMoro. It was the first nurses’ union to win collective bargaining contracts for nurses at East Bay Hospital Conference. However, these contracts did not come easy, it took mass resignations and strikes to get the attention of the hospitals. According to Huber (2018), a key role for nursing leaders is to influence culture and climate, as well as inspire the entire team to move forward and create a positive work environment (p.54). Being overlooked as just women was way overdue and it was time for change. 550 registered nurses (RN) from 7 Bay area hospitals had to go on strike for 5 days, in order to get those contracts. This opened doors for nurses to be included in health care planning, 40-hour work week, health benefits, paid vacation and delivery of service. Collective action seemed to do the trick for these nurses.

Northouse (2018) explains leadership as a process whereby one individual will influence a group of individuals to attain a certain goal (p.7). I believe the ideal of these nurses in the 1900s was to fight for their rights as nurses, caregivers, started with one nurse voicing their views and fortunately all the other nurses were in agreement. CNA focused on member concerns like respect and equal rights for themselves, and also setting the direction of the organization. These ladies were advocating for themselves and their patients. They knew they were capable of giving good care to their patients but were simply denied the opportunity for the longest time. The nurses in the video came together in solidarity to stand up for what was right. Nurses had been ill-treated for the longest time and seeing them advocate for themselves was a step in the right direction.

One of the core concepts that led to the success of the CNA was persistence. The nurses never gave up fighting, they went on strikes, proposed their demands to the hospital boards, advocated for their patients. This is evident in their fight at Kaiser. It took months of continuous striking; they stood their ground and eventually they got their demands approved. Winning this battle broke down the cultural barrier that overlooked women in the workforce as equals, since they had been discredited in all they did, simply because they were women. It was a big accomplishment for women as nurses, but also women in general. After the success of the CNA, women were now motivated to go work in various fields, or even work at all, because most of them had been stay home mothers.

Fight for justice also fueled the nurses’ stand for their rights. Even after enlisting and treating the wounded casualties in WW II for which they were highly recognized and respected, the nurses were still overlooked by hospitals. They still received minimum wages among other things. One of the nurses in the video explained that the people that took care of the hospital lawns were paid much more than the nurses. They never received benefits and yet they worked hard. The main contributor to the injustice that the nurses faced was the doctors. They thought they were superior to anyone else and everyone had to worship them. Little did they know they needed these nurses to help out with patient care. The environment which happened to be the hospital had given upper authority to the doctors or basically just turned a blind eye when the doctors treated the nurses with no respect. To them, nurses were handmaidens who were tasked with serving them. This behavior had to stop, and it would only be through the nurses standing up against such behavior and disrespect.

Forming the CNA gave the nurses empowerment. Coming together to fight for their rights as a group was an amazing feeling. This empowerment attracted nurses from other hospitals who were influenced by their colleagues from Eden hospital, that they too decided to join the noble cause. These nurses were determined not to let administration disrespect them; they were ready to stand up for themselves. These ladies were determined, energized and compelled to fight for what was right. Not only for themselves, but for the nursing generations to come.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

Re: Topic 6 DQ 2

Computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening is still a relatively new preventative measure that can be approved and covered by health insurance. Therefore, information and communication to these patients is critical. Copeland et. al., (2019) found many barriers for patients to obtain their lung cancer screenings, one of which included patients lack of awareness about screening availability. There are many forms of communication technologies including printed materials, media campaigns, community outreach, and interpersonal communication (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], 2021). A great way to communicate screening availability is by utilization of registered nurse case managers employed by health insurance companies. Many insurance companies are now asking patients their history or current use of nicotine products during their initial and annual renewal of their insurance policies. Case managers could pull that data and determine patients who qualify for these screenings. They can then complete outreach phone calls to these patients to get them scheduled for their screenings.
References

Copeland, A., Criswell, A., Ciupek, A., & King, J. C. (2019). Effectiveness of lung cancer screening implementation in the community setting in the United States. Journal of Oncology Practice, 15(7), e607–e615. https://doi.org/10.1200/jop.18.00788

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2021, June 23). Health communication and health information technology. Healthy People. Retrieved July 24, 2021, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/health-communication-and-health-information-technology

In a study by Breed, Downing and Ally (2020), leadership is aligning employees with a vision. 49-unit managers from 5 hospitals in South Africa participated in this study, and it showed that nurses that are highly motivated achieve more and are more productive.

This statement is evidently true in the leaders that started the CNA, they were obviously motivated and willing to fight.  The success of the CNA was based on the desire for change. They were tired of how they were treated by the top bosses and the doctors at the hospitals, they had had enough. They all had one goal in mind, and that was to get the pay and they deserved, the respect, adequate patient delegation, their opinions to be considered during medical meetings and planning, and above all, their profession to be acknowledged as a health care providers. The support from the patients only emphasized what was already known to be true, these nurses were treated unfairly.

Learning from the original CNA founders, I found that persistence produces results. In order to be achieve anything for my team, I will have to be persistent and fight on, just like these nurses never gave up. A good leader must be determined to accomplish that, which their start, and I intend to emulate that determination, because my team will be looking up to me as their leader, to be their voice to the higher administration.  Worthy et al., (2020) analyzed the relationship between nursing deans and faculty job satisfaction, and the study showed that when nursing deans were transformational leaders, or democratic in nature, the faculty was more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. Wanting my employees to be happy, I have to engage them more and be more positive as their leader.

References

Breed, M., Downing, C., & Ally, H. (2020). Factors influencing motivation of nurse leaders in a private hospital group in Gauteng, South Africa: A quantitative study. Curationis, 43(1). doi:10.4102/curationis.v43i1.2011

D’Antonio, P., Connolly, C., Wall, B. M., Whelan, J. C., & Fairman, J. (2010). Histories of nursing: The power and the possibilities. Nursing Outlook, 58(4), 207-213. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2010.04.005

Huber, D. (2018). Chapters 3. In Leadership and nursing care management (p. 54). St. Louis, MO, MO: Elsevier.

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Chapter 1. In Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (4th ed., p. 7). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Worthy, K., Dawson, R. M., & Tavakoli, A. S. (2020). Relationship Among Nursing Deans’ Leadership Styles and Faculty Job Satisfaction Levels. Journal of Nursing Education, 59(2), 68-75.