| |
February 2000
Volume 64 |
Number 2
|
| |
VENTILATIONS
|
| We're Number Two! |
I read a press release last week that thoroughly deflated my
enthusiasm for rallying my constituents. A heavily trafficked
Web site had announced that the American Association of Nurse
Anesthetists (AANA) cracked Fortune's list of Washington's
most powerful lobbying groups. You read it correctly it's
on the World Wide Web and now Congress definitely knows about
it. The only nursing and nonphysician health care group on the
list ranked 101: nine positions higher than the American Society
of Anesthesiologists (ASA). It is more exasperating to know that,
in 1998, ASA ranked 30th and AANA did not even reach the 114-member
list.
Now I know about emotionally draining events. I'm a Buffalo
sports fan first, wide right; then, no goal; and now, no
lateral! However, unlike a spectator sport, losing in the professional
arena has profound personal ramifications. But, unlike sporting
event outcomes, we are capable of changing our plights in the
professional world.
Every anesthesiologist hearing this information ought
to be motivated to eclipse AANA's lobbying and fund-raising efforts
by giving more to the American Society of Anesthesiologists Political
Action Committee (ASAPAC). Now is the time to finally enlist those
erstwhile, independently thinking, non-contributing free spirits
(or is it freeloaders?) to finally participate in their own professional
welfare.
In 1980, a feisty team of college hockey players accomplished
the improbable at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. That year saw
a determined, well-coached group beat the odds against an overconfident,
complacent team. Let's not have a similar turn of events occur
in the games at Washington.
-- M.J.L.
"Now is the time to finally enlist those erstwhile, independently
thinking, noncontributing free spirits (or is it freeloaders?) to
finally participate in their own professional welfare."
return to top
Home >Newsletters
>February 2000Home >Test |