I am a proud member of the MSNA-CAN-NNOC Unit 1 union at Eastern Maine Medical Center, and it is through that membership that I find myself sitting in negotiations trying to make sense of the proposals tossed between both sides. It appears the hospital is crippled by the proposal for a professional practice committee that was introduced to us by the California Nurses Association, with which we are now associated.

This committee would be made up of staff nurses from throughout the hospital, void of the nurse managers who operate and set the agendas for the existing staffing committees. The hospital has made it clear they are not willing to hand over control to the very people in their organization that live it, breath it and struggle daily for it.

The professional practice committee must become part of our new contract if the nurses expect to have a real voice in how patient care is delivered.

Lisa Jackson, RN

Bangor