The elected leaders of the Michigan Nurses Association, the largest union and professional organization representing registered nurses and healthcare professionals in Michigan, direct the organization’s public policy agenda.
MNA is a nonpartisan organization. We strive to work with all lawmakers, regardless of party, to advance public policy that supports all nurses, healthcare professionals, patients, and workers.
- Ensure safe patient care
MNA is the only Michigan organization working to address RNs’ top concern: too often, they are forced to take care of too many patients and ordered to work longer hours than are safe. There is no law limiting the number of patients a nurse can be assigned and there is no law limiting the hours a nurse can be mandated to work. Hospital understaffing creates conditions that are dangerous for patients and nurses alike. MNA supports passing laws that set minimum nurse-patient ratios by unit in Michigan hospitals and limit mandatory overtime. The safe staffing movement among RNs is growing, and MNA will keep pushing back against a corporate focus on profit over patients. MNA is also committed to working with our healthcare allies to address ratios and overtime across other healthcare professions. - Make workplaces safer for nurses & healthcare professionals
Professions in healthcare are often physically demanding and dangerous. Nurses and other healthcare workers have high rates of back and other musculoskeletal injuries from lifting and repositioning patients as well as performing other tasks. Nurses and healthcare workers also face verbal and physical assaults from patients and family members, a rising problem that calls for preventative solutions. Both healthcare workers and employers suffer when high rates of preventable injuries causes workers to miss work or leave their profession. MNA’s bipartisan legislation would require hospitals and other health care settings to create a workplace violence prevention plan with input from frontline workers; train employees on policies, reporting violence, and using de-escalation and other preventive techniques; and track workplace violence and report injuries to law enforcement. - Protect collective bargaining rights
Health care works best when nurses and healthcare workers have a strong voice in patient care. Collective bargaining is the best tool they have to effectively advocate for their patients. Nurses and healthcare workers under a collective bargaining agreement have the potential to negotiate workplace conditions, such as staffing levels. Those nurses and healthcare workers are also better protected if they object to unsafe situations or advocate for changes to improve patient care. It’s important that Michigan nurses and healthcare workers have the right to organize if they choose and to exercise their full rights.
For information on legislation or how to become more active as an advocate, contact Caleigh Hunt, MNA Public Policy Director at 517-730-1828.