Legal and General Guidance for Nurses Having Problems in the Workplace

While the Center for Nursing Advocacy would like to help nurses with their individual workplace problems, our skeleton staffing simply doesn't allow us to do that. Our focus is on promoting the nursing profession generally instead of advocating for nurses one-by-one. However, we do have some suggestions for you below if you do have workplace difficulties. This is mainly geared toward US nurses because our resources allow for little else, but if you know of international or any other additions to this page that would be helpful, please send them to us at info@truthaboutnursing.org so we can provide the best guidance to nurses in need.

First, if you are having workplace problems and you are in a union, contact them. If you are not in a union, contact the Center for American Nurses. International nurses--if you know of organizations that can help, please send us that information so we can post it here.

Contact your state nurses association, even if you are not a member, they might have some information about people who can help you. (47 states, California, Maine, Massachusetts)

Contact your state bar association for referrals. They may refer you to a local bar association, depending on how big the city is that you live in. They should be able to direct you to a lawyer who can represent you on a contingency basis. You would not need money up front in this case. You should look for an employment lawyer to help you, because they are the ones who pursue wrongful discharge cases. Make sure you find one who represents employees, not employers.

Try contacting the American Association of Nurse Attorneys for guidance.

If you can't find a lawyer to represent you on a contingency basis, you might seek out a legal aid society or legal assistance for free legal help. Your state bar association would be able to direct you to legal aid societies in your area. International nurses, click here to find resources in your country.

If you live near a law school, sometimes law students will staff legal aid clinics and if you go there, they can help you for free. Search for law schools close to you.

If you are having great financial difficulty, you can contact Nurses House to see if they can help.

Also read our FAQ's below and learn how you can strengthen nursing at your institution

Our FAQ's section will help you bolster your concerns so you can marshall your arguments effectively. We have placed a few FAQ's below that may concern you, but please see our entire section.

What is nursing? answer...

What is the nursing shortage and why does it exist? answer...

Are you sure nurses are autonomous? Based on what I've seen, it sure looks like physicians are calling the shots. answer...

What happens to patients when nurses are short-staffed? answer...

Is nursing a subspecialty of medicine? answer...

Should we refer to physician care plans as "orders?" answer...

Strengthen nursing (and by extension, patient care) at your hospital by:

considering unionizing. If you are not in a union, and you believe that nursing at your workplace would be stronger and the patients would have better outcomes under a union, consider taking a leadership role in the process and contact SEIU or the National Nurses Organizing Committee to help. (If you know of other nursing unions, please suggest additions.)
working for magnet status at your institution;
working beyond (or to strengthen) the Magnet Credentialing program to better support nursing by emailing ANCC and asking them to have the Magnet program:
- nail down strong specific RN:patient ratios,
- increase nursing educational requirements for the chief nursing officer instead of decreasing them, like will happen in 2008,
- provide clinical nurse specialists for each floor on each shift,
- increase support for workplace nursing libraries, nursing research and continuing education,
- assure that workplace boards of directors are comprised of at least half nurses,
- assure that at least one public relations professional in the institution is solely dedicated to supporting, promoting and representing nurses.
implementing shared governance at your institution (read how it works);
increasing awareness of safe staffing levels;
nurturing the next generation of nurses.