Professional organizations have been a part of me forever, in my blood since 1973. I have co-founded a few, joined so many, served as President of a number of them and served on so many committees they have become like white cells, too numerous to count.

There has always been a tension in most organizations that is not necessarily bad but usually is not recognized until a crisis hits. It comes when the staff or volunteer leadership has been there for years and decides it knows more than it’s members about the issues and about what the members need. You can recognize it when the people in charge start saying that the members “don’t recognize the big picture” or hear phrases like “let them come and try to do this, they don’t realize all the things we do”. When “we can’t do this or we can’t do that” becomes the answer to too many members concerns. Later when membership falls, the leaders blame it on apathy or even suggest that they are not to blame as less people join because the profession is “fat and happy”. 

No doubt there is apathy and in both the PA and NP professions. I see it all of the time. Both professions need to teach our students that everything we have today and all that we will gain in the future comes at a price. That price (at the very minimum) is joining your state and preferred national organizations. And those of us who have contact with students and new graduates must echo that feeling and model our involvement in state and national organizations, even if only by supporting them with our dues. Yes, I believe in professional organizations.

As a leader, I have always believed organizations exist solely because of it’s members and truly must reflect the wishes of those members. There is no way to successfully run an organization and think your members wishes don’t count. 

That being said, I have a feeling that both the AANP and the AAPA will be paying more attention to it’s members in the future. Now, I know I can find PAs and NPs who feel that they always have been paid attention to, and I can find many who feel they never have. Regardless of which side you fall on, the good old grass roots member will be counting much more. Why? Because the pharmaceutical industry will be providing less funding than ever before to all organizations that represent prescribers. For NPs and PA and most physician organizations this will set up a new paradigm were our leaders have to listen closer and act on the member’s wishes. 

In the case of PAs and NPs, our organizations received millions of dollars each year from the pharmaceutical industry and that made up for revenue that in other organizations where they could not prescribe this revenue would have come from dues. Not having this revenue would have made the individual member’s voice much louder and the organizations would have had to have been more adapt at taking the pulse of it’s membership. It would have had mechinisms in place to be more responsive to members needs. Don’t get me wrong, all of our organizations did much good as they really had the money to do things that could have never been done as quickly without that “non-dues” revenue. That money allowed all of us, both NPs and PAs, to get more lobbying done, get better legislation faster at less cost to the members than we should have been able to going by our numbers alone.  The bad part was that many (not all) of our organizations (at least on the PA side) national, state, and specialty did very much the same thing when it came to listening to their membership; they set up a culture where the members were hardly questioned about what they needed or wanted. I do not remember if I ever was polled about the issues we have been discussing for years from my state or national academy (name change, recertification, post graduate programs, specialty boards, more autonomy, relationship with organized medicine). Those types of issues were off limits. 

Today things are changing. Membership dues have started to make up a much higher percentage of future revenue. What that will hopefully mean (if they listen) is that the individual members voice gets much louder as every member lost hurts the organization much more financially. They will have to meet the needs of their members to grow. No more million dollar infusions of profit from booth sales at the annual meeting. 

So why is this important? Because the PA profession is taking a look at it’s name and many have decided that the profession needs it changed for all of us to move forward in a positive way. Many have decided that we can not brand a generic name that no longer represents who we are and what we do.http://www.associatenamechange.com. We need our leaders to listen to us. We need our leaders not to endorse (although that would be fine) but to hear and let their membership know that this and other issues are important issues. 

Maybe the NPs will decide that the DNP degree should remain optional and write their organizations? Maybe PAs will decide to ask for more autonomy, or to have smaller regional conferences or to alter the way they must recertify? Maybe both NPs and PAs will decide that our professions need to work closer together? Our professions will have to create new ways to listen as the members seek change and ask to be listened to. 

If not, the price we all will surely pay will be less membership, higher dues and more unhappy clinicians who feel disenfranchised from their professional groups. A huge loss to all who care and to our effectiveness as professions. 

Dave

Dave has been a PA, and later NP, leader for thirty years.  He strongly believes that NPs and PAs must work together to insure a better future for both professions.  Most recently Dave has been busy launching another dream; Clinician 1, the first internet community for PAs and NPs.  In October 2008, Dave was honored by the New Jersey State society of PAs with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE

You must be logged in
to recommend articles

Average (Not Rated)

» Recommended Articles