Spring was a great time to be a member of ANA-NY! In April, we met in Albany for an in-person board meeting and lobby day. At the board meeting, we discussed the hard work of our committees and special interest groups. Thank you to everyone who participates in these wonderful groups. We also approved the addition of a new special interest group focused on young professionals. I look forward to working closely with this group and understanding more about what these members need from ANA-NY. We reviewed ANA-NY’s 2024-2027 strategic plan and all agreed that we are doing well to achieve our goals as planned with the continued support of our members and their engagement. Without our members we wouldn’t have an organization, so please continue to take advantage of the benefits and opportunities that come with your membership. The lobby day was wonderfully orchestrated by the ANA-NY team and lobbyists leading to 22 participants from the Legislation Committee, Political Action Committee, and board holding 24 in-person meetings. It was nice for me to spend time with some of our members and advocate alongside them. For all of you who participated virtually- THANK YOU. With your help, 475 messages were sent to 196 members with 110 messages personalized by you. Storytelling is the key to advocacy, so I have faith that at least one of our voices was heard! The bills we talked about related to health system transformation, expanding patient access to care, attaining health equity, ensuring workplace health and safety, and expanding nursing workforce development and support. We worked to represent both registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses during our meetings. S2278/A5208 is a bill we think will get some traction. This bill would require hospitals to have a registered professional nurse as a voting member of their governing body. This legislation will make an impact, and we’ll continue to advocate for our voices to be heard and counted in this way! Although ANA-NY wasn’t advocating for the medical aid in dying bill, it was being discussed (and passed the assembly) while we were there. When time permitted, we attended the discussion in the gallery. It was a very cool experience to hear both sides debate this bill that has been proposed in some form since 2015 in NY (Robinson, 2025). We were warned to be quiet, but it was tough at times to not say anything having seen human suffering in its rawest forms myself. This is as close to being a sports fan as I have ever been, and I now understand why people yell at their TVs during games. Assemblymembers Karine Reyes and Phara Souffrant Forrest (both RNs) wrote about this topic in the Empire Report in May as well in a piece titled Tales from the Bedside: A Nurses’-Eye View on Medical Aid in Dying. I encourage you all to read this powerful piece. It was also pet advocacy day in Albany the day we were there. I got to meet “Albert Swine-stein”, the therapy pig, who visits nursing homes across the state, and I left pondering what the group called Parrots for Peace is all about. Overall, it was a day of advocacy, watching history being made, and meeting new friends. 

Spring also means nurses week celebrations. I hope you all had a chance to pause and remember your purpose in this wonderful profession and just how powerful you are. I hope your employers took time to recognize your contributions as well. Congratulations to our nurses week winners who participated in our bingo and trivia games. Be sure to continue to read your emails for the weekly bulletin or check our website for ways to get involved and have some fun. Fun is something we all deserve, even if in small doses. In addition to nurses week, spring brings us new graduate nurses (GNs). Remember when you graduated nursing school!?! The pride, the relief, the fear, the stress transfer from school to NCLEX-RN studying. If you have the opportunity to work with GNs, give them grace and remind yourself that they will one day be able to fill your shift when you ask for a well-deserved day (or night) off. Teach them what you wish you would have known earlier and work to laugh with them rather than at them when they misspeak or breakdown over something trivial. If you get a chance, tell them why you became a nurse and thank them for joining our ranks. We need them now more than ever. Congratulations to the winners of the ANA-NY Future Nurse Leader awards as well. ANA-NY gave out 20 awards (an increase from last year) to nursing graduates from across the state. I hope to see some of you at our annual conference or at a virtual event soon. We’re glad you are here. 

References

Reyes, K. & Souffrant Forrest, P. (2025, May 21). Tales from the Bedside: A Nurses’-Eye View on Medical Aid in Dying. Empire Report. https://empirereportnewyork.com/tales-from-the-bedside-a-nurses-eye-view-on-medical-aid-in-dying/

Robinson, D. (2025, May 21). New York bill that would allow medically assisted suicide gains support. Poughkeepsie Journal. https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2025/05/21/should-doctor-assisted-suicide-be-legal-ny-weighs-new-law/83766597007/