Mary Griffith, RN, MN Arizona Republican (left)
Mary Foley, RN, MN California Democrat (right)
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As part of our continuing effort to bring readers information to help them vote, NurseWeek presents profiles of two nurses, one Republican, one Democrat, and how they view next month’s presidential election.
Mary Griffith, RN, MN
Arizona Republican
As a Republican nurse, Mary Griffith, RN, MN, has always been something of an anomaly.
In the 1970s, her political affiliation earned her a place on the American Nurses Association’s newly formed political action committee, which needed a Republican to diversify the panel. More recently, a nursing baccalaureate student in her class on legislative activism said he thought all nurses were Democrats.
“There’s guilt by association,” said the chair of the legislative committee for the Arizona Nurses Association. “People assume Republicans are anti-health care.”
Far from being put off, Griffith says she enjoys dismantling preconceived notions.
In fact, Griffith says, not only can nurses be Republicans — an informal poll taken at the ANA convention in June registered 25% Republicans among delegates, she said — but Republicans can be very pro-health care.
She cited statistics that show a reduction in the percentage of children without health insurance and a deceleration in the costs of medical benefits under President Bush. Republicans support the Nurse Reinvestment Act, she said, and the Bush administration has not cut it. Furthermore, the Bush administration has tackled problems with medical malpractice lawsuits in a way that gives her hope.
Perhaps most importantly, it is the Republican Party’s general philosophy that jibes with Griffith’s way of thinking.
“The more government there is, the less empowerment and accountability there is. I think individuals are the best people to make life decisions, not the government,” she said. “The Republican Party historically says, ‘Keep government out.’”
That doesn’t mean there is no role for the government in health care for Americans, she said.
“There are poor people who need government help with their insurance, but that doesn’t mean that everybody needs it,” she said. “I try to stay moderate on that.”
In her role on the ANA-PAC, Griffith tried to break down preconceived notions that Democrats deserved reflexive endorsements. She would investigate each candidate’s record and sometimes argue for the Republican endorsement. Sometimes, the PAC followed her lead.
In 1980, for example, the group endorsed five Republicans for races in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Wyoming’s Dick Cheney.
Griffith does not vote a straight party ticket.
“I’ve voted for the occasional Democrat for president,” she said, laughing.
But the most important thing for nurses in this year’s election and always is to know that they can make a difference, especially if they talk to their legislators, Griffith said.
“No matter what happens, the republic will stand,” she said.
Mary Foley, RN, MN
California Democrat
Mary Foley, RN, MS, was still in nursing school when she became hooked on politics.
“I got right into the flow of things,” said the former president of the National Student Nurses’ Association who now is vice president of ANA\ California and vice chair of the American Nurses Association’s political action committee.
Because nurses concern themselves with patient safety and advocacy, they have credibility with the public and politicians, she said.
“When we do call, people listen because we’re not self-serving,” she said. “I think that’s a wonderful position to work from.”
Although Foley has seen more bipartisanship on efforts to solve the nursing shortage since the crisis has escalated, she supports the Democratic Party because she finds the values intertwined in its legislation to be more meaningful to nurses and their issues.
For example, nursing may be intellectual work, but the profession is a trade, and Democrats traditionally support trade labor unions.
“They tend to be more understanding of the working person’s realities,” she said, citing Democratic leadership on issues of needlestick safety and ergonomic standards.
“They get it when we talk about overtime limitations and safe staffing,” she said.
The nursing perspective relates safe staffing with patient safety, she said, and Democrats have been more receptive to regulations regarding staffing levels.
She thinks regulation may be part of the answer to ensuring safe staffing levels, although she recognizes such laws would limit the independent decisions hospitals make.
“It may be the safest thing that can be done,” she said.
“More importantly, as I listen to the platform being released, they are talking about issues that resonate with nurses,” she said. “Speeches at the convention reflect the priorities we hold close.”
Just as she sees nurses as effective political advocates, she also doesn’t doubt their ability to have a voting impact.
“We vote in large numbers, we have very high credibility, we talk to a lot of people,” she said. She expects the ANA’s endorsement of Kerry to be a positive influence on his campaign for presidency.
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