1970s: Getting political

While the nation was undergoing major shifts in civil rights, human rights, and women’s rights, WSNA strengthened its political muscle. Not only did WSNA adopt its first legislative platform in 1970, but it also established one of the first political action committees in the country for nurses.

WSNA Mini Journal, November 1972

A capacity audience filled the Bainbridge Room at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Seattle on November 15 to hear both nurses and consumers view the implications of the proposed changes in the law regulating the practice of professional nursing in Washington.

Phyllis Leonard, project coordinator of the pediatric nurse practitioner program at the University of Washington, led off the nurse panel. She answered in the affirmative her own question, “will the new definition allow the nurse to do all she needs to do to provide better care?” A nurse practitioner from the Pioneer Square Neighborhood Health Station in Seattle, Priscilla Dann, described how she functioned to bring health care to a client population from the inner city. The third panelist, Linda Brown, a nurse clinician at University hospital in Seattle, gave insights into the nurse’s expanded role in the emergency room setting. Gretchen Schodde and Lynne Vigesaa of the Darrington Nurse Clinic related their rewarding experiences in providing primary health care to the residents of this small rural community in Snohomish County.

The first panelist speaking for the community, Helen Lemmon, chairman of the Darington Clinic Board, held the gathering spellbound as she graphically told how Gretchen and Lynne handled an emergency logging accident. She remarked that she formerly had thought “nurses could only apply bandaids without a physician’s O.K.” but that she had found out “nurses could give primary and preventive care all along”. At the conclusion of her vivid presentation and impassioned pleas that “nurses are the answer” and “primary care is the answer”, the audience rose to its feet to give her a standing ovation.

Donal Sparkman, M.D., director of W/A RMP, speaking on behalf of his own views, called for optimum utilization of all members of the health team. His questions concerning the proposed new definition of nursing drew the most reaction from the conference participants. A pediatrician from Olympia, Philip R. Vandeman, M.D., gave his view from the vantage point of a physician utilizing a nurse clinician in his private practice. He observed that his practice is more efficient and “more fun” now since he is freed up to care for the sicker patients. He also offered the opinion that most physicians do not know what nurses do or can do.

During the conference, recognition was given to a contingent of about twenty to thirty Darrington citizens who had traveled 80 miles to attend the meeting and give their support to the concept of the nurse clinic.

WSNA Mini Journal, July 1976

After reaching impasse during federal mediation in late June, the negotiating committee for the 2,200 registered nurses covered by the Seattle Area Hospital Council contract issued notification of a strike to begin at 7:00 a.m. on Monday, June 12. Fifteen of the eighteen hospitals in the Council were named in the strike notice — Auburn, Ballard, Burien, Harrison (Bremerton) , Northgate, Northwest, Overlake (Bellevue), Providence, Riverton, Cabrini, Seattle General, Standring, Swedish, Virginia Mason and West Seattle. The three Council hospitals not named in the strike notice are Valley General (Renton) , Stevens (Edmonds), and Children's Orthopedic — Valley General and Stevens are tax district hospitals and their employees are not provided the right to strike by state law. Children's Orthopedic is the only children's hospital in the area.

Issues at impasse includes “just cause” requirement to terminate an RN, WSNA membership or fee for services, compensation, staffing (RN input, shift rotation, adequate orientation to new clinical areas, premium for double shift, agreement on daily schedule changes), retention of present benefits and improved vacation.

The Ad Hoc Committee to Study Problems and Concerns of Minority Professional Nurses, later known as the Cabinet on Ethics and Human Rights, was established as a standing committee of the Board of Directors in July 1970. A precursor to ANA’s Human Rights Commission, the committee’s goals aligned with ANA’s, leading WSNA to receive ANA’s Human Rights Award in 1978. The committee continued its work for three decades until it merged with three other committees in 1999 to form the Professional Nursing and Health Care Council. Founding members included Shirley Ticeson, Lydia J. Johnson, Alyce M. Smith, Jane P. LaFargue, Thelma P. Pegues, Margarita Prentice, and Lois Eason.