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American Journal of Critical Care. 2004;13: 14
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LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
To the Editors:

Reading your editorial on professionalism (September 2003:400–401) really saddened me. Just as I’m completing the requirements to renew my CCRN credential at the end of this month, I have to stop and think, should I bother? I first joined AACN and passed the CCRN exam in the mid-1980s and have been working as a staff nurse in critical care since 1972. I work 12-hour shifts in a surgical intensive care unit and also serve (and I mean serve!) as an officer in our collective bargaining unit, the United American Nurses. I have become active in collective bargaining for the safety of my patients, peers, and myself. Consequently, by your standards, I am not a professional.

During the last decade, I have become disheartened by AACN’s walk away from the bedside, as I have "gone the extra mile." When I first became involved in AACN, I did so because I respected the clinical requirement to maintain CCRN certification status. This seemed to signify that staff nurses and their role in healthcare were honored by this organization, not minimized or belittled. I have spent my career self-sacrificing for my patients, but the current working conditions are the worst I’ve seen. I believe the nursing shortage, in part, is a result of nurses’ self-sacrificing, not demanding safe working conditions or, as you wrote, "making the best we can with what we have." This attitude has perpetuated these intolerable working conditions, causing nurses to flee from the bedside, dodging bullets as they go. Reading your editorial reinforces my assumption that as nurses move away from the bedside, these "professionals" rule from aloft on their thrones, leaving the worker bees to try to get one meal break in a 12-hour shift. Does AACN condone this? Collective bargaining does not.

I do appreciate the clinical knowledge that AACN continues to provide to me as a "bedside nurse." The September issue has some great articles that I can incorporate into my practice, but it’s difficult for me to accept that AACN no longer cheers me on due to my unprofessional status. I have not deserted my patients. I am sorry to see that you have left me behind.

Mary McKenna, RN, CCRN
Durham, NC





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