If you’re considering a career in nursing, the chances are that you’ve already heard about the level of support that is available within the profession. This doesn’t just come from colleagues, other healthcare professionals or appreciative patients – it’s also something that you can access through professional organizations and associations. There are a great many of these and you’ll have decisions to make about which are best for you, but membership has a lot of benefits. This article examines how they work, what they can do for you, and how you can make the most of the opportunities they offer.
Nursing associations
With so many options available, how do you decide which nursing association or other professional organization to join? In fact, many nurses join more than one. It’s a good idea to be a member of one of the large national ones, such as the American Nurses Association or the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, because they are unparalleled in their lobbying power and the extent of the resources they can bring to bear when needed. However, you should also consider joining your state nursing association, which will be in a better position to give you localized advice and information and to deal with state-level legal or regulatory issues.
You might also want to join an organization relevant to your specialty, as the likes of the Oncology Nursing Society, the Academy of Neonatal Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists are fantastic for networking and career advancement as well as helping you to stay in touch with developing issues. Finally, some people are drawn to culturally relevant groups such as the National Black Nurses Association or the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, which understand the specific issues faced by particular groups and offer social as well as practical support.
Contributions to the profession
Professional organizations and associations such as these have played an important role in shaping the field of nursing and making it what it is today. They brought together disparate groups of people working to provide care to educate and professionalize them. They instituted the values that form the foundations of the modern profession, eventually creating the codes of ethics that nurses use to guide their work. This gave nurses the power to lobby for changes in the way that hospitals were run. It also enabled them to lobby to get the type of healthcare they provide properly funded, as well as strengthening their ability to advocate on behalf of vulnerable patients and patient groups. They have been particularly effective in securing improvements in minority healthcare and continue to work toward eradicating race-based disparities in health outcomes.
Education
Many people hoping to develop a career in nursing begin by joining the National Student Nurses’ Association. This organization provides excellent mentoring and support during the first stages of nursing education and can also be helpful to those taking advanced courses at a later stage. The National League for Nursing is also a frontrunner in terms of the educational resources it can provide, having originally developed around a commitment to expanding nursing knowledge.
If you are pursuing an advanced degree in nursing or undertaking research, or if you just want to ensure that you’re in a position to make use of the very latest knowledge in your specialty, then specialty-specific nursing organizations are very useful – they can keep you up to date on the publication of new academic papers and sometimes arrange discounted access to them, as well as discounts on journal subscriptions or even courses.
Career development
If you’re a member of a nursing association, you can expect quite a bit of help when it comes to finding the right position. This usually begins with informing you about your career options and giving you access to lists of specific job openings, and extends to helping you polish up your résumé either generally or with the aim of appealing to a specific institutions.
Some are also able to provide advice on the best educational routes to take in order to get to where you want to be in the long term, helping you to identify your strengths and weaknesses and find the best course at a respected institution such as Holy Family University so that you can maximize your potential. Holy Family University’s Second Degree Distance Hybrid Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) enables you to graduate as a competent and compassionate caregiver. The program can be completed in just 14 months.
International organizations such as Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing can help you even if you want to move your career abroad, and it has also played an important role in improving the career options available to nurses by promoting workplace rights.
Networking
One of the most important things you can do in order to improve your chances of making progress in any career is to network, and professional associations provide an excellent environment in which to do so. Most hold regular events through which you can meet other nurses from different institutions, make useful contacts and find out what it’s like to work there, as well as what new opportunities might be coming up.
They also keep you up to date on developing news within the sector and help members come together to support each other when dealing with workplace-related emotional, financial or legal issues. There are frequent opportunities to get involved in running parts of these organizations, and although this is usually unpaid, it can do a lot to boost your credentials and win the respect of other members of the profession, helping you to demonstrate your talents and access better opportunities going forward.
Conclusion
The role of nursing associations and similar organizations is vital to the maintenance of the profession’s high standards and to the rigor with which it continues to develop. Membership of such organizations gives individual nurse practitioners access to the best resources through which to learn and develop as professionals, with the support needed to overcome any challenges. For newcomers to the sector, they provide a deep well of expertise to draw on. The only real question is which you should join, and that’s something you can start investigating even before your training begins.
