Unions

Nursing the Numbers

- Kirsty McKenzie

Active members are the key to recruitment for one of the state's strongest unions, the NSW Nurses Association. We talk to some of the star recruiters.

	Nurses Show: Activity and Recruitment Go Hand in Hand

What can you expect for ten bucks? Support in the workplace, constant vigilance on pay and conditions, attention to occupational health and safety, access to further education and scholarship, a sense of community.

For the host of members who are dedicated to recruiting new members to the NSW Nurses' Association the benefits sell themselves. It costs the average Registered Nurse $9.62 a fortnight to belong.

As far as the Association's recruiters are concerned, it's not a question of whether nurses can afford to belong, it's more a matter of can they afford not to.

During the past five years they've encouraged more than 5,000 new members to take advantage of the many services the Association provides, more than 1,000 of them in the nine months to September last year. Any financial member is eligible to recruit new members and for every new member the

Association provides a reward of a $5 David Jones gift voucher to the recruiter. As well, there's a major travel prize awarded each year for a lucky recruiter. (The 1999 prize is an all-inclusive six nights, twin-share holiday at Club Med Lindeman Island.) For every member you have signed up you get a ticket in the draw.

Megan Norris, Gulargambone Hospital

Gulargambone Hospital permanent part-time night-duty RN Megan (Janette)Norris takes the direct approach when it comes to encouraging new staff to join the Association.

"You're nursing in a small country hospital, there's no doctor, no ambulance, and while the police are resident, more often than not they're seconded to other towns," runs her opening gambit. " You'll often be a sole practitioner with no close support services and you have to make life-threatening decisions. Do you realise what position you put yourself in if you don't join the Association? You'd have to be crazy not to join and have someone stick up for you if things go wrong."

Megan, who has been nursing for 25 years, was instrumental in the establishment of her local branch in 1994. She admits she was inculcated to the "strength in numbers" approach to the workplace when she arrived in the country and discovered the hospital was doubling duty as a vet clinic, that babies' bottles were being stored in the same fridge as kangaroo's bottles and the same boilable syringes were being used for humans as animals.

"Many of the practices were totally abhorrent to me, as they were to most of the staff, but no-one realised they could do anything about it," she recalls. "That was my introduction to the Association. But it opened my eyes to what was possible if you stood together and stood your ground. I'm aware that being in the country, I'm dealing with a fairly conservative group, but I tell them if they don't join the Association, they're on their own."

Megan says she values the fact that the Association make it possible for her to update her skills via courses and conferences, which is especially important when nursing in relative isolation. She appreciates the recruitment incentive scheme and says it's always a pleasant surprise when she opens the mail to receive another voucher. She saves them up for infrequent visits to the city - "the nearest DJs is at Penrith and that's almost 500km away."

Marjorie Atkinson, Oban Nursing Home, Raymond Terrace

AIN Marjorie Atkinson is remarkably sanguine about the fact that after 27 years as a member of the Association and 12 years as a branch representative for the Oban Nursing Home at Raymond Terrace, the fact that she allowed her membership to lapse for three weeks means she can't continue as branch delegate, at least for the next 12 months.

"That's the rules," she says matter-of-factly. "You've got to abide by them and I accept that I was in the wrong." Marjorie estimates she has recruited more than 100 new members during her years in the profession and had added another application to her portfolio the morning she spoke with The Lamp.

"Fortunately our DoN is a good unionist and she encourages the staff to join," she says. "I always approach new staff and explain that we're here to intervene on their behalf if they should encounter any problems. Mind you, it's been so long since there has been any issue with management that I can't remember what it was about. However, you can't be too careful when you're dealing with the frail and elderly, because there's always the risk of accidents and you need the protection that the Association provides."

Rhonda Rowan, Hurstville Gardens Nursing Centre, Sydney

When EN Rhonda Rowan filled her swimming pool with floating candles for a recent family celebration, she took great pride in telling her guests: "That's on the Association". The candles were typical of the "few indulgences" the David Jones voucher incentive scheme has allowed her to enjoy over the years.

Rhonda retires this June after 24 years at the Hurstville Gardens Nursing Centre. She's been involved with the Association since the local branch was formed in 1992, is currently the branch delegate and has "lost track" the number of members she's recruited in that time. While it was a personal conflict with a superior which first brought her in contact with the Association, she constantly promotes membership as a "tax deductible insurance policy."

"You never know when you'll need them," she says. "With the health care system stretched for resources, you don't know what could happen. And I don't know many nurses who can afford $1,500 a day for a barrister if they are charged with neglect of care."

Rhonda hastens to add that she's not militant and believes in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. "I have a good relationship with management," she says. "However, I am aware that there are members of staff who are too young or don't feel able to confront the DoN or other superiors. That's where I can help, or if necessary, call in assistance from head office."

Christine Lennon, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney

As the Manager of Nurse Education at St Vincent's, Christine Lennon regards her recruiting role as "a professional responsibility". She and her colleagues always incorporate a five-minute briefing on the Nurses' Association into their orientation programme for new staff.

"There's a NSWNA brochure provided along with other printed material to complement input sessions which the nurses are given when they start work here," Christine says. "But that can easily be overlooked in the volume of information they have to absorb so I make sure we reinforce the message verbally.

"Some of these people might never have thought of joining a union before and we don't have much time to explain all the benefits, so we try to make the points as plainly as possible. I raise the obvious things - that these are the people who go in to bat for them concerning pay and conditions and if they don't belong to the Association, they can't vote and they lose their right to choose who represents them.

"I also promote the Association as a professional as well as an industrial organisation and talk about the courses and conferences it organises and the opportunities for scholarship. I generally get a positive response, but it really is a team effort by those facilitating the orientation programme."

The rewards for signing up new members are utilised by Christine and her staff as the DJs vouchers become part of a slush fund in the office and are spent by mutual agreement. Sometimes they go towards text books and materials for the department "as there's not a bottomless pit for educational resources", while on other occasions they're spent on biscuits and nice coffee for informal afternoon teas with the new graduate nurses and morning teas to welcome post graduate specialist nursing students at course commencement.

Paul Hunt, Kareena Private Hospital, Sydney

While there aren't enough members at Kareena Private Hospital to form a branch, intensive care unit RN Paul Hunt acts as the staff representative for members of the Association. He came to the private sector after a turbulent time as a branch representative at Prince Henry Hospital in the mid-'90s when that hospital was being relocated to the Prince of Wales campus.

Paul says he finds working conditions and relationships with management at Kareena much easier than they were in his former workplace. "Any situations which have arisen have been few and far between and fairly easily resolved," he says.

"I don't think there's any difference in the standard of nursing, medical and surgical care between the private and public sectors," he says. "But conditions for staff are a lot more comfortable. I wish I'd joined the private sector years ago."

Paul adds that in terms of recruiting new members, the Association sells itself. "I talk about legal coverage and keeping up to date with pay scales and award conditions and I show them copies of The Lamp," he says. "They don't need me to point out that the publication alone makes it worth their while joining for access to drug bulletin updates and information about professional events organised by the Association."

While Paul has been a beneficiary of the membership incentive scheme, he wonders if the rewards shouldn't be directed at new members. "After all, we're already members," he says. "It's the people who don't belong we should be encouraging."

Coral Levett, St George Hospital, Sydney

As manager of staff education at St George Hospital and current president of a branch which has about 950 members, Coral Levett uses every opportunity she can to ask nurses a series of questions.

How is it that nurses, as the largest group of health professionals don't play a more prominent role in determining health policy? How can they change the situation? How can membership of the Nurses' Association facilitate that change? And how can members get the most out of their Association and other professional bodies to which they belong?

Coral has been involved in the industrial arena for almost two decades. As well as a regular introduction to the Nurses' Association during staff orientation, she teaches a course during CNS (clinical nurse specialist) training called Political Activism in Nursing which endeavours to raise nurses' awareness of their potential to effect change as well as dispel some of the myths surrounding women in politics.

She says the branch came of age in 1996 when the Association was deeply involved in avoiding a proposed merger between St George and St Vincent's Hospitals. "Since then we've developed a good relationship with management and with the Department of Health," she says.

"We certainly don't get ignored any more when issues do arise. I think we've achieved a fair bit in recent years, and I always point out our successes when I'm recruiting new members."

Coral cites a campaign to keep car parking prices down and the appointment of data entry clerks to reduce NUMs' workload resulting from the introduction of the Kronos computer system for connecting rosters with pays as recent "wins" for the branch. "There was a three-month trial and we understand it is about to become a permanent arrangement," she says. "It's something we'll be hanging on to for dear life."

"I've been here 15 years so the managers all know me well," Coral adds. "They know that if due processes aren't followed the Association will be called in. At the same time they know we don't go looking for business or trouble. Our goals are simply to get a good outcome for all concerned and to maintain confidentiality where it's appropriate."

James Rooney, David Berry Hospital, Berry

A concern for making young people aware of their rights encouraged trainee EN James Rooney to sign up a number of his coursemates at the Shellharbour TAFE. James, who lives in Kiama and has almost completed his 12 months training through Berry's David Berry Hospital, came to nursing via a chequered career which included stints as a landscape gardener, bar manager, wardsman and at the steel works at Port Kembla where he was a union delegate.

"I'm a mature age student and I've lots of experience in the workforce, so I'm quite able to stand up for myself," he says. "I was happy to become the Association rep for David Berry when I was asked, because I'm quite comfortable dealing with management and I'm aware that you never know when you might need the back-up that the Association provides.

"I've only intervened on a couple of occasions, involving misunderstandings or bureaucratic problems about pays. Those cases involved young kids who didn't have the confidence to ask their superiors. I tell them I can't help them unless they belong, and they usually join up."

This article was originally published in "The Lamp"

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