Every profession requires a traditional culture that promotes professional efficacy, value, and quality service delivery. Professionals in various fields achieve their culture through professional associations, which provide members with numerous advantages and cultural norms. In the healthcare sector, various clinical practitioners have embraced professional associations to enhance their clinical practice and caregiving through interactions and following the organization’s culture. Among the professional associations is the American Association for Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), which advocates for nurses who care for clients with critical conditions. Under the associations, critical care nurses can voice their perspectives, learn new caregiving practices, and grow professionally through education and networking. This essay gives an overview of AACN and its significance in professional growth and development to understand its importance in critical care nursing.
AACN provides professional support and advocacy for critical-care nurses following its mission, vision, and core values. The association’s mission is a framework of three interconnecting aspects. The first aspect states that clients and their families rely on nurses to provide valuable services during critical situations (AACN, 2022). Secondly, critical care nurses depend on AACN to obtain skills and expertise which enhance quality care for patients and their families. Lastly, AACN aims to drive excellence toward positive outcomes (AACN, 2022). Thus, the primary purpose of AACN is to support and enhance knowledge among its members to offer quality care to patients and their families during vulnerable times. The association’s mission is supported by its vision of dedicating resources toward a healthcare system that focuses on the needs of clients and their families through optimal caregiving from acute and critical-care nurses. The association’s mission and vision are guided by core values, including integrity, transformation, inclusion, and leadership (Munro & Hope, 2022). The values ensure a common culture that all members and staff uphold to achieve excellence and efficacy in service delivery.
AACN offers numerous benefits to its members to advance critical nurses’ professionalism and personal development. AACN allows its members to continue learning and growing professionally to achieve the best caregiving practices. The organization’s continuing education and professional development opportunities include funding, scholarships, access to free publications, free research, certification, conferences, and reduced tuition costs (AACN, 2022). The association provides opportunities for continued education by offering free journal publications and free access to research articles that give significant knowledge on caregiving practices enhancing their intellectual ability and expertise in critical caregiving (Munro & Hope, 2022). At the same time, the association provides funding, scholarships, and reduced rates for education courses, motivating critical-care nurses to advance their education and pursue courses in related fields. AACN gives members certification upon completion of continuing education courses which can be used for career advancement as evidence of excellence enhancing professionalism (McPeake et al., 2021). Therefore, the association encourages its members to pursue career advancements and learn new things, allowing them professional development and continuing education.
Being a member of AACN gives critical-care nurses opportunities of obtaining information that may be unavailable to non-members. The association ensures that members are updated on current caregiving practices to promote quality service delivery (McPeake et al., 2021). The organization keeps its members informed of healthcare changes and changes to practice in various ways. The organization keeps members informed of healthcare changes and practices by collecting information from researchers, which contain informed knowledge on healthcare changes and practice. Secondly, the organization allows nurses to visit other hospitals with advanced and innovative approaches to caregiving which can be adopted for quality service delivery. At the same time, interacting with colleagues from other healthcare centers enables critical care nurses to share information on healthcare changes and alternative approaches to caregiving. Lastly, the organization ensures its members are updated by publishing the latest research articles on trends and quality care issues. Thus, the organization ensures that nurses keep up with current trends in research-based practices and healthcare changes of professionalism and quality delivery.
Another advantage of AACN is providing a platform for networking with its members, allowing critical care nurses to connect with peers and faculty. For instance, the association connects graduate specialists with employment opportunities and supports them in discovering their full potential in the occupation (Munro & Hope, 2022). AACN provides networking to its members through conferences, online communities, webinars, annual organizational meetings, seminars, and participating in organizational activities like volunteering (AACN, 2022). The approaches allow a member to connect nationally and globally, leading to a community with diverse knowledge and expertise in caregiving.
Networking is crucial to the professional and personal development of critical-care nurses. Networking allows nurses to exchange information and share experiences, promoting professionalism. Connecting with nurses in the same specialty can open numerous opportunities for learning, employment, and career advancements (McPeake et al., 2021). Consequently, global interactions can facilitate sharing of ideas, cultures, and practice-based research, which keep the nurses updated on current critical care practices that promote quality service delivery.
From the above, a professional association is essential for nurses, particularly those with specific areas of specialization, such as critical-care nurses. Nurses specialized in acute and critical care nursing are under AACN, which promotes professionalism and individual growth. Benefits of belonging to AACN include education development, networking, professional growth and development, and obtaining reliable and current information on critical-care nursing practices and healthcare changes. The benefits align with AACN’s vision and mission of promoting excellence to achieve the best caregiving practices for patients and their families during critical times. Therefore, nursing organizations are essential for nurses from all fields as it offers numerous benefits which help in professional and personal growth.
References
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. AACN. (2022). Web.
McPeake, J., Iwashyna, T. J., Boehm, L. M., Hibbert, E., Bakhru, R. N., Bastin, A. J., Butcher, B. W., Eaton, T. L., Harris, W., Hope, A. A., Jackson, J., Johnson, A., Kloos, J. A., Korzick, K. A., Meyer, J., Montgomery-Yates, A., Mikkelsen, M. E., Slack, A., Wade, D., … Haines, K. J. (2021). Benefits of peer support for Intensive-Care Unit Survivors: Sharing experiences, care debriefing, and altruism. American Journal of Critical Care, 30(2), 145–149. Web.
Munro, C. L., & Hope, A. A. (2022). Future nurses. American Journal of Critical Care, 31(3), 174–176. Web.