subject: What Nurses Need To Know About The Ana [print this page] The ANA is the American Nurses AssociationThe ANA is the American Nurses Association. It is a professional organization that represents the 3.1 million nurses in the United States. The goal of the ANA is to improve nursing by emphasizing high standards for the profession, promoting the rights of nurses, and spreading a positive view of the profession. The organization also works with Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues that affect nurses.
The ANA works in a wide range of areas.
It sets standards for nursing practice and has established a nursing code of ethics. It also helps with professional development, offering credential services and continuing education courses. The nursing standards describe the responsibilities of nurses and state the values that are important to the profession. The standards also set out ways that nursing practice can be evaluated, and its responsibilities to the public.
Then ANA also has established the National Center for Nursing Quality, which develops criteria for measuring nursing quality, along with sponsoring research into ways of improving quality.
Another arm of the ANA, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, is the largest and most recognized nurse credentialing organization in the United States. The Center offers a nursing certification program, awarding the certification to nurses who have proven their skill and knowledge. More than 250,000 nurses have received their certification from the Center since 1990. In addition, more than 80,000 advanced practice nurses have been certified by the Center.
The ANA also offers a range of educational resources, from books and articles, to online references and online continuing education courses.
The ANA is also active in analyzing and developing healthcare policy. The ANA's Department of Nursing Practice and Policy is the branch of the organization assigned this task. The experts in the department have backgrounds in clinical nursing, healthcare delivery, public health, law, informatics, and economics. The staff examine healthcare trends and help to formulate the ANA's position on current healthcare policy. The organization has been a long-time proponent of healthcare reform that allows access to quality healthcare for everyone.
The ANA also has a career center, an online resource whose purpose is to bring together nurses with healthcare employers. The career center has a number of search services. Employers can post jobs or look at nurse resumes. Job seekers can do a job search or post a resume.
Through the career center, job seekers can use the National Healthcare Career Network, an extensive source of career openings for job seekers, and a bank of job candidates for employers. The network has more than 100 top healthcare associations and professional organizations.
