Directors

Linda Hamilton, RN Director

A nurse for 27 years, Linda Hamilton works at the Children's Hospital and Clinics in Minneapolis in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) and also cares for patients who require ECMO (extended heart and lung bypass) in the neonatal and pediatric ICU.

Hamilton has been politically active since she was a teenager and is a member of the UAN RN PAC Board. Of her early political involvement, she notes that the transition from being active in politics to becoming active in her union was a natural one when she witnessed the "war on nursing practice that was being waged by employers." When managers undertook development of a new "role design" policies for nurses, Hamilton, then a new bargaining unit chair, led nurses in a fight for nursing practice that resulted in no staff nurse layoffs. More importantly, Hamilton and staff nurses won a policy that preserved nurses' responsibility to meet the emotional and physical needs of children that only RNs have the training and experience to detect.

Hamilton is a leader in nursing and labor issues and activities in her state, serving as the treasurer of the Minnesota Nurses Association and past chair of the state's Economic & General Welfare Commission. At the local level, she continues to serve as a steward in her facility, a position she has held since 1994, and served as chair of her bargaining unit from 1994-2004.

Photo by Chris Takagi/Aphelios, 2008.