ABOUT THE MNA

The Massachusetts Nurses Association

Since its founding in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) has been the most powerful and effective voice on nursing and health care in the Commonwealth.

MNA created the Nurse Practice Act, the RN license designation, developed a uniform curriculum for the education of nurses, wrote the first code of ethics for nurses and passed, or helped to pass, nearly every state law governing nursing practice including the law allowing nurses to unionize in Massachusetts.

Today, the MNA is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses and health professionals in the state, and the third largest in the nation, representing more than 23,000 members working in 85 health care facilities, including 51 acute care hospitals, as well as a growing number of nurses and health professionals working in schools, visiting nurse associations, public health departments and state agencies.

The MNA is a one-member/one-vote democratic organization where the members set the agenda. An elected Board of Directors is made up of frontline nurses and health care professionals from across the Commonwealth. Nurses have the opportunity to address local issues and to mobilize within their own communities through five Regional Councils, with offices and staff serving Western Mass, the North Shore, South Shore/Cape & Islands, Central Mass and Greater Boston.

No matter where nurses practice or what the population of patients they serve, the MNA has the tools, the resources and the support nurses need to be the best they can be and to ensure that the patients they care for receive the care they deserve. In the workplace, on Beacon Hill, in every community in the Commonwealth, the MNA is the power behind nurses’ professional practice.