This Board is for use by Career NAs who want to deal with difficult issues in positive and construcive ways

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: 2/7/00 : This message board is provide by, for and with NAs to address important issues that affect each of us. The purpose of the Board is to provide a forum in which NAs can discuss our issues, concerns, good ideas and provide support, encouragement and reassurance to each other. A Career Nursing Assistant is committed to a high standard of ethical behaviors that are in the best interest of the people in our care, our peers, workplace, the community, and ourselves. When any NA grows, we all benefit. On the other hand, it is easy to reinforce the negative stereotypes that others hold about NAs - we do not want to do this. We want the image of the NAs that others hold to be that of a caring, concerned, knowledgable and ethical person who provides an important service in health care and deserves adequate compensation, appropriate training and supervision, adequate wage and benefits, career advancement and others - because this is what most NAs really are. : We must be partners in order to truly address these and other issues and we mustlearn how to speak about issues in a way that others will listen. There is much to do and now more than ever before, legislators and public policy people are willing to listen - but they do not want to hear bitching or badmouthing - they want to know what NAs need in order to provide care - and they want to know that we are together in our aims. : It might interest you to know that among the people who monitor this message board regularly are legislators from several different states, a number of public policy people, several federal agency people and at least 2 editors from major journals in long term care - these are just the folks we know of. : Each of us has a responsibilty to present an authentic image of nusing assistants to these people and to discuss the real issues we face in a constructive manner. : We have tried to avoid censoring this board because we do want it to represent NAs - and it has been difficult for us to make the decision to do so - but we are uable to let this fine service be used to attack our brothers and sisters in care and for it to be used for purposes other than intended. Please know that messages that are deemed to be inapproriate and inconsistent with the purpose of this message board will be deleted. Unfortuantely this means that some good stuff that should be passed on will also be lost. : We have been an organzation by, with and for NAs since 1977 and have overcome many hurdles to get this far. We need your efforts to be constructive. Please know that the National Network stands ready to work with any NA who wants to be a part of the movement for positive change and who is willing to work with difficult issues of care, such as staffing, wage and benefits, abuse and neglect, education and career advancement. If you are a NA or other who wants to make things better for yourself and for the people in your care, and you are willing to work with others to accomplish this, then we would be pleased to discuss committee appointnments and special projects that are designed to empower NAs in positive and meaningful ways. : Thank you for your courtesy. : Genevieve Gipson

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