American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing prioritizes three policies: policies for a healthy working environment, end-of-life care and palliative care, and workforce and staffing development (AACN, 2021). Additionally, the association collaborates with other organizations to advance other organizations’ priorities. Through participation in policy conferences, national standards development, and task forces, the association ensures the vision of a healthcare industry where critical care and acute care nurses can contribute to policy developments.

The processes for policy initiative and development include highlighting of the recommended evidence-based practices, alignment of the campaign with the goals of the association, increment of recruitment to involve opinion leaders in the recruitment process, formation of a coalition with physicians and healthcare organizations, generation of the threshold for the participating organizations, development of practical tools and guides for implementation, creation of networks to advance learning opportunities and lastly monitoring and evaluation of the targeted goals ( Patton et al., 2018). On the formation strategy of coalitions, the AACN is a part of several collaborations, including the American Nurses Association, the Critical Care Society, the Coalition for Patient Rights, and the Coalition for Nursing Community.

With the implemented policy initiatives on critical and acute care of patients, there is a noticeable improvement in acute and critical nursing care compared to before the initiative. Currently, with the implementation of the healthy working environment policy, there is reduced turnover of nurses, improving healthcare outcomes. A healthy working environment allows nurses to provide high standards of patient care, enhancing the quality of care. According to the AACN (2021), the units that implemented healthy working environment standards performed better than those that did not work in several ways, including the environment’s overall health, nurse staffing, moral distress, and violence in workplaces. Therefore, the association advocates for the implementation of the standards across all units for a better outcome.

References

Patton, R., Zalon, M., & Ludwick, R. (2018). Nurses Making Policy, Second Edition (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.

AACN, (2021). Aacn.org. Retrieved 19 November 2021, from https://www.aacn.org/policy-and-advocacy.

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Describe a policy initiative implemented by nurse leaders from a national professional nursing association, the processes used by the organization in formulating and implementing a policy agenda and the current outcomes of the initiative.

Suggested organizations include (but are not limited to):

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) American Nurses’ Association (A.N.A.)
American Association of Nurse Practitioners (A.A.N.P.)
American Association for Nursing Leadership (AONL), effective May 2019 (formerly AONE)
The American Association for Men in Nursing (AAMN)