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The MNA and ANA: Structure, purpose and interrelationship
By: Karen Daley, MPH, RN
MNA President
MNA has a long and proud history of promoting high
standards of nursing practice and advancing the nursing profession
through a wide range of activities. However, despite access to information-sharing
vehicles like the Mass Nurse, Advocate and MNA web site, members
often lack a true, clear understanding of the depth, quality and
impact of the ongoing work of the association.
In order to begin to understand the implications
and potential impact of ANA disaffiliation, it is important for
members first to understand the MNA's purpose and structure and
our relationship with ANA as it currently exists.
MNA mission and purpose
The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) is the
largest professional health care membership organization in the
commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1903, the MNA has long
served as the voice of registered nurses in the commonwealth. In
this rapidly changing health care environment, it has never been
more critical for the MNA to speak for the profession of nursing
in Massachusetts. To accomplish this effectively, the MNA actively
involves members and participates in decision-making in a variety
of practice, health care reform, legislative and economic arenas,
impacting decisions that directly influence the entire profession
of nursing in Massachusetts.
The association's mission, as stated in our bylaws,
is "to preserve the identity, integrity and continuity of nursing
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." With 20,000 members and a
committed elected leadership and staff, MNA advances the nursing
profession by:
- Working for the improvement and availability
of health care services for all people;
- Fostering high standards of nursing practice,
education, research and nursing administration;
- Promoting the professional development of nurses;
- Advancing the economic and general welfare of
nurses; and
- Acting and speaking for nurses in Massachusetts.
MNA membership structure
The MNA exists as the state-level organization that
is directed and run by the membership through the Board of Directors
(BOD) and a grassroots-driven structure. The Board of Directors
is the elected leadership body that has authority and responsibility
for the direction of the MNA between annual business meetings. The
Cabinet for Labor Relations is the elected leadership body that
has authority and responsibility for the direction of the MNA Labor
Relations Program.
Members have an opportunity to become actively
involved in MNA through a recently-adopted organizational structure
designed to be more flexible and responsive to the rapidly changing
needs of our membership and profession. Apart from elected leadership
positions on the BOD and Cabinet, membership involvement in MNA
is organized in the following ways:
- Congresses: Develop and implement the
association's strategies to protect and advance the nursing profession.
Three Congresses – Nursing Practice, Health Policy and Legislation,
and Occupational Health and Safety are comprised of 12 members
each who are elected to two-year terms.
- Committees: Assist and guide the BOD
in addressing nursing issues related to an ongoing and specialized
identified need. Current MNA committees include: Finance; Bylaws;
Awards; Diversity; Nominations; Addictions; Psych/Mental Health;
Continuing Education; Staff Development; and the Lucy Lincoln
Drown Nursing History Society.
- Center for Ethics and Human Rights: Established
as an organized, deliberative resource body that focuses on high
standards of practice, advocacy for patients, and issues of ethics
and human rights. The Center is accountable to the MNA BOD and
is composed of 8 members, four of whom are elected and four of
whom are appointed by the BOD. Members serve two-year terms.
- Role and Issue Groups: Members have the
opportunity to form networking groups related to issues and areas
of common interest. The groups allow for exchange of information,
professional support, collaboration, professional growth, and
leadership development. An Issue Group is comprised of members
who come together based on a shared interest in an issue such
as domestic violence; a Role Group comes together based on a particular
practice or specialty interest such as care of elderly populations.
- MNA has five districts which exist as
part of the state organization, but operate as independent and
separately incorporated regional structures. Each district maintains
control over its own resources, dues structure and decision-making
power. Through the districts, members have an opportunity to become
involved on a local level and bring issues to the state level
through the Member Network and District Leaders Network.
- Networks: The Member Network and District
Leaders Network exist within the MNA state-level structure. These
two network structures provide a mechanism that allows the district
membership to support and bring issues forward to MNA. District
Leaders are made up of the designated leaders who discuss issues
of membership and identify improved ways of providing leadership
and service to the districts. The Member Network is the formal
body through which the districts and Role and Issue Groups bring
issues forward. Both the District Leader and Member Networks have
10 members with 2 selected from each district. Member Network
members serve for two years or until a successor has been selected.
- Task Forces: Are convened by the MNA
BOD, Congresses and Member Network to work on issues that need
immediate attention by the MNA and are comprised of members with
expertise and interest in the issue. Task forces work with a specific
purpose and a defined time frame for action.
- MNA Delegates: The MNA also provides
members with an opportunity to influence nursing issues on a national
level as an elected delegate to the American Nurses Association
(ANA) annual House of Delegates. More information on the ANA structure
and relationship to the state nurses associations follows.
Click here
for an org-chart of the MNA structure
 Note:
This application form is available as an Adobe
Acrobat downloadable file. In order to view it, you must first have
the
Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer. This
software is available for free from Adobe. To
download the Reader
software,
click here. After you have downloaded the Reader and installed
it, you may then download the org-chart
to view and print from your PC.
MNA departments and services
The MNA, through its numerous departments and experienced
staff, provides service to its members and works to advance the
organization's articulated mission, purpose and strategic plan.
Members and nurses throughout Massachusetts are supported through
a wide range of activities originating from: the MNA Career Center;
the Department (Dept) of Labor Relations; the Dept of Legislation
and Government Affairs; the Dept of Membership; the Dept of Nursing;
and the Dept of Public Communications which are briefly described
below. The Dept of Administration, which oversees operational aspects
of MNA including budgetary, computer/information and office management
systems, will not be described in more detail since it functions
in a more indirect way to provide member service.
The MNA Career Center assists members with career
development and transition prompted by the rapid changes in health
care delivery systems. The Center assists nurses to assess their
professional competencies, clarify career goals, learn about educational
and career opportunities and develop effective job search strategies.
MNA is currently the only organization offering these needed services
for registered nurses.
The Department of Labor Relations, under the direction
of the Cabinet for Labor Relations, provides collective bargaining
representation to approximately 17,000 nurses and health care professionals
working in more than 80 health care facilities.
The Department of Legislation and Government Affairs
provides lobbying, regulatory and legislative process expertise,
and public policy analysis related to issues affecting every aspect
of professional nursing practice. Staff work closely with members
and legislators to move nursing's public policy and legislative
agenda forward.
The Department of Membership provides systems to
support ongoing member recruitment and retention efforts. The Department
also maintains and continually updates MNA membership counts and
records, works with vendors to optimize benefits of membership and
spearheads new graduate recruitment efforts.
The Department of Nursing focuses on issues and
programs that impact clinical practice, continuing education, occupational
health and safety, ethics, safe practice, workplace violence, and
medical error prevention. Through its participation on the Coalition
of Medical Error Prevention, the department brought attention to
the role inadequate nurse staffing, floating and mandatory overtime
plays in medical errors.
The Department of Public Communications provides
media relations and publicity generation related to MNA-related
activities and issues affecting safe, quality-nursing practice.
Department staff work closely with members who interact with media
and also promote increased communication with members through monthly
publication of the Mass Nurse. In January of 1999, with the department's
expertise, MNA launched its own web site as a additional means of
reaching and informing the membership.
ANA mission and purpose
Founded in 1897, the ANA is the only full-service
professional association that represents the interests of the nation's
2.6 million registered nurses through its member associations and
over 180,000 members.
Similar to MNA on the state level, the ANA's mission
on the national level is broad. The association's long-term
mission, according to the bylaws is:
- To work for the improvement of health standards
and availability of health care services for all people;
- Foster high standards for nursing, stimulate
and promote the professional development of nurses; and
- Advance their economic and general welfare.
During the past year, the ANA Board of Directors
has honed the organization's focus and committed its resources to
concentrate on five priority issues: workplace rights, appropriate
staffing, workplace health and safety, patient safety and advocacy,
and continuing competence.
ANA membership structure
Under a federated structure, the ANA is composed
of constituent members that consist of 53 state nurse association
(SNA) members like MNA, a federal nurses association, three related
entities (American Nurses Foundation, American Academy of Nursing,
and the American Nurses Credentialing Center), and 13 organizational
affiliate members (e.g. the Emergency Nurses Association). ANA also
established the Nursing Organization Liaison Forum (NOLF) which
comprises more than 70 national nursing organizations and serves
as a platform for addressing important issues that affect the entire
nursing profession and health care. Under the current ANA model,
it is the association itself that is the actual ANA member. Individual
nurses become a part of the ANA only by joining their SNA. Once
the individual nurse joins an SNA, he or she is entitled to participate
in ANA through elected or appointed positions (nominations are submitted
through the SNA BOD) and through the House of Delegates. As an MNA
member, a nurse pays dues both to the SNA and the ANA. For
more information on MNA member dues click here.
The ANA is directed and run by its Board of Directors.
BOD members are elected, as are all elected ANA leadership, by the
ANA House of Delegates (HOD). The Board of Directors has the authority
delegated to it by the ANA HOD, including the duty and power of
acting for the membership between annual delegate meetings. The
BOD reports to and is accountable to the ANA HOD. The ANA HOD is
comprised of elected representative delegations from all of the
ANA constituent SNA members. Based on our apportionment of membership
dues paid annually to ANA, MNA currently has the second largest
delegation consisting of 41 elected members.
More than 25 of the ANA's constituent member associations
serve as the collective bargaining agents for nurses. The United
American Nurses (UAN), established in 1999, is the ANA labor structural
unit now responsible for establishing and implementing an effective
national labor agenda. The UAN Executive Council is the elected
body that has the authority delegated to it by the UAN National
Labor Assembly (analogous to the ANA HOD) to act for the UAN membership
between annual meetings of the Labor Assembly. The National Labor
Assembly is the governing and official voting body composed of individual
members elected from within UAN constituent memberships. Because
the current UAN insulation as structured is considered inadequate,
the MNA has chosen not to join the UAN.
Apart from elected leadership positions on the BOD,
MNA member involvement at the national level through ANA can occur
in a number of ways:
- Congress on Nursing Practice and Economics:
The Congress focuses on formulating nursing's response to
emerging trends within the socioeconomic, political and practice
spheres of the health care industry by identifying issues and
recommending policy alternatives to the ANA BOD. Fifteen members
comprise the Congress - ten are elected by the HOD; five are appointed
by the ANA BOD. Terms last four years.
- Committees: The three ANA committees
include the Bylaws, Reference and Nominating Committee. The Bylaws
Committee reviews and interprets bylaws, and prepares bylaws before
submission to the ANA HOD. The Reference Committee receives, reviews,
and reports on proposals submitted for consideration by the HOD.
Appointments to both of these committees are made by the ANA BOD
from names submitted by constituent member SNAs. The Nominating
Committee requests names of candidates for elected office and
prepares the slate presented for vote by the ANA HOD. All members
are elected.
- Constituent Assembly: This is a deliberative
body that promotes consideration of professional and organizational
issues and consults with and advises the BOD. Two representatives
from each constituent member SNA, the president and chief executive
officer, attend scheduled meetings that are held at least once
a year.
- House of Delegates: The ANA HOD is the
governing and official voting body of the ANA composed of not
more than 615 individual members elected by constituent member
SNAs. At its annual meeting, the HOD determines association policies
and positions by deliberating and voting on actions brought forward
from SNAs and ANA structural units such as the ANA BOD and Congress
on Nursing Practice and Economics. The HOD also delegates the
authority of the ANA BOD as well as authority and accountability
for implementation of the policies and positions it approves.
ANA departments and services
The ANA, through its departments and experienced
staff, provides service to its constituent members and works to
advance the association's articulated mission, purpose and priority
issues. Constituent member services and activities originate from
a variety of departments including: the Office of the General Counsel;
Communications Department; Constituent Affairs; State Government
Relations; Leadership Services; the Department of Government Affairs;
Labor and Workplace Advocacy; Nursing Practice; the Center for Ethics
and Human Rights; and the Department of Health and Economic Policy.
In the absence of my ability to provide an accurate and adequate
summary of specific services provided under each of these departments.
Hopefully, this basic information and the additional
content contained in this section of the web site represent a starting
point for a process that will involve and engage members from throughout
the state in an open and energetic dialogue in the months ahead.
Members can address any comments or questions related to the disaffiliation
issue or to any related published material in this issue by email
to the Affiliation/Disaffiliation Task Force at mna@mnarn.org
or by telephone to 800.882.2056, x775 or fax 781.821.4445, or by
mail to the MNA, 340 Turnpike Street, Canton, MA 02021. For
more information on the ANA visit their web site at www.nursingworld.org
Back to Affiliation/Disaffiliation page
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