Abstract
Professional organizations act as an avenue for advanced nurses to air their issues, front policies and contribute towards care delivery practices. It unites peers in the same field, helping them have a stronger voice in the political, economic, and cultural arena at all levels. However, such organizations’ limitations include the existence of fees that may prevent nurses from joining and take away the already depleted human resources from their primary duties service provision. Notably, some of the ethical considerations taken into account by nursing associations include recruiting people from diverse backgrounds and using credible and competent individuals to run operations. This way, they represent all ethnic setups, delivering equal services to urban and rural populations. Ultimately, professional organizations need to invest more in the medical infrastructure and recruit more personnel to continue with their set objectives.
Impact of Professional Organizations on Advanced Nursing
Human beings are often characterized by the tendencies to assemble, converse, and champion their cause. These outcomes are evident by the depth and breadth of the existing and multiple nursing groups that aim to improve the working conditions of advanced nurses and their specialties (Pauget & Wald, 2018). Today, there are more than a hundred national nursing organizations alongside other international associations, including the American Nurses Association (ANA), National League for Nurses (NLN), and Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). Such professional organizations are essential for producing the energy, flow of ideas, and proactive work required to establish and promote healthy professions that advocate for the needs of all stakeholders. For example, membership to any entity provides advanced nurses with certification opportunities, continuing education and training, educational conferences and meetings, and role-related competencies (Pauget & Wald, 2018). Therein, whereas there may be many other factors impacting advanced nursing, the text focuses on professional organizations, including merits, demerits, and ethical considerations.
Analysis
Definition of the Issue
Professional development for an individual aiming to become an advanced nurse does not stop after graduating from nursing school. In contrast, the journey commences once a nurse has passed the NCLEX examination and is on course to pursue education. This way, it is justifiable to allude that advanced nursing is a lifelong process that requires active participation (Williams et al., 2020). To continuously develop into an advanced professional nurse, an individual must join a nursing organization. The significance of the approach is that it unites peers in the same field, which helps them have a stronger voice in the political, economic, and cultural arena on national, state, and local levels (Williams et al., 2020). In this regard, advanced nurses are easily predisposed to unite, take one stand and speak in a single voice. Another vital point to highlight about professional nursing organizations is they support various advanced nursing specialties and practice positions, enabling members to be at the forefront of practice changes.
Benefits and Challenges Related to the Issue
The merits of professional organizations related to the definition of excellence, networking, continued education, and career development. Since the onset of the new century, healthcare has evolved, meaning quality care is the sole guarantee for advanced nurses to stay on top of the trends that affect the practice (Morin, 2021). Nursing organizations provide the much-needed platform for members to influence policy that impacts different levels. In addition, they avail a wide range of updated information and resources, including webinars, articles, and newsletters. Another factor is networking and continued education among advanced nurses because of the expansive network of other professionals within the same organizations. Further, these entities provide advanced nurses yearly learning opportunities since they can participate in online training and national conferences to realize professional credits (Morin, 2021). Together, these outcomes encourage career development as the focus is balanced between patient care and career growth. Thus, individuals can take different positions within the organizations’ structures, boosting visibility, leadership, and resumes.
Despite the merits, professional organizations are also marred with various challenges. The most typical challenge with such entities entails fees that require to be reimbursed monthly or annually, depending on the organization. On top of the annual fees, others also suppose the payment of application fees. While some quarters may argue that such costs are often affordable for advanced nurses, the problem culminates when one joins several organizations (Moloney et al., 2018). In this view, more associations will mean more fees, which could rise to astronomical levels. The other demerit arises due to time constraints, especially when an advanced nurse joins different levels of associations and is provided with leadership roles. This way, patients are consequently denied critical care by those mandated to do so, impacting the quality of care. Finally, organizations could increase pressures once an advanced nurse joins them. A good case example occurs when the association takes a stand that goes contrary to an individual’s belief but is required to support it fully.
Ethical Considerations
All professional nursing organizations hold ethical values in high regard. It is considered the basis for advanced nurses, who encounter ethical challenges daily. While the ethical dilemmas may sometimes conflict with the Code of Ethics or individuals’ beliefs, it is pertinent that nursing associations settle for what is best for patients and advanced nurses. They recruit the best-qualified nurses into their structure and award them vital positions. Such an approach is significant because it predisposes patient care into the hands of the most credible and reputable people (Rosa et al., 2019). In addition, most associations conduct independent research on different ailments and publish the results on reputed journals and websites to enhance their knowledge in the medical field. This way, it encourages the overall development of nurses since they can access new information, improving the delivery of quality care to patients (Rosa et al., 2019). Finally, professional organizations champion public issues, such as affordability of care, low staffing, and improved care at different levels of government.
Impacts of Professional Organizations on Advanced Nursing Practice Role
Professional nursing organizations impact nursing practice by developing targeted resources, establishing professional standards, and availing engagement opportunities. They play a vital role in ensuring that advanced nurses have the necessary resources to provide patients with safe and quality care (Morin, 2021). Besides the resources, these associations devote considerable time to address the educational needs of their members and subsequently feel any gaps through education and training. For example, different bodies generate constant professional development products, helping advanced nurses remain relevant and up-to-date with diverse clinical practices. Notable approaches entail developing organizational publications, including educational pamphlets and textbooks, and peer-reviewed journals covering vast topics of interest. The other impacts on nursing practice by organizations entail setting professional standards of conduct. These outcomes consist of nurse-patient ratios, code of ethics, and practitioners’ levels of competencies (Morin, 2021). Further, specialty nursing associations are reputed for expanding on general professional standards to avail more specific standards.
Importance of Professional Organizations to Rural/Urban Populations
Professional nursing organizations play a crucial role in advancing healthcare needs for urban and rural setups. While the two geographics may face seemingly similar healthcare challenges, the former is subject to more severity because of the lack of access and resources (Fowler et al., 2018). In rural destinations, geography, culture, and remoteness hinder individuals from quality care interactions, leading to worse healthcare outcomes, unlike individuals in urban areas. In this regard, nursing associations have moved swiftly to address these disparities by dispatching some of their members in these areas. The approach is further unique because organizations comprise professionals who identify with diverse cultures. In addition, since urban and rural populations face limited resources, mainly facilities, and services, associations provide the much-needed funds to address the respective situations (Fowler et al., 2018). Thus, they can have expansive budgets from different levels of governments, authorities, and non-governmental organizations and utilize them to solve healthcare disparities and challenges in urban and rural areas.
Suggested Plan
Overcoming the Challenges
It is not an easy task for professional nursing organizations to turn around the healthcare outcomes of different communities. Furthermore, this situation is challenging for rural setups with relatively low influence on government policies and practices. In this view, a lot has to be done to alienate the typical barriers to care delivery, enhance environmental conditions and assist the various populations in adopting healthy practices (Rosa et al., 2019). Professional organizations need to remove exorbitant fees that they require members to pay to join them. The significance of such an approach will encourage further enrolment, particularly for advanced nurses in rural areas. These practitioners could influence directives in the long-term, including increased diversion of resources to these regions. Additionally, recruiting more nurses to the structure will ensure that individuals do not occupy multiple positions in the organizations, forcing them to take more responsibilities denying patients the needed quality care (Rosa et al., 2019). Thus, focusing on the mentioned aspects will ensure that professional organizations overcome some of the challenges that such associations pose.
Advancing Health and Health Care Delivery
Besides playing an influential role in promoting medical and mental healthcare, professional nursing organizations can draw attention to the much-required health care infrastructure in the country. Since most advanced nurses operate in areas where they grew up, the associations must ensure that necessary facilities, including training and education, are set in these regions. These outcomes can be actualized through increased funding for the already established facilities and the creation of new ones, leading to increased access for patients (Rosa et al., 2019). The same intervention could further be stretched to target nursing students to become advanced nurses via programs that fund their education to the highest levels, including post-secondary training. As a result, the number of practitioners is likely to increase as more join the profession and the professional organizations, meaning more quality care. Essentially, targeting new talents and improving the healthcare infrastructure could be the answer for associations to contribute towards health care advancements and delivery.
Summary
Over and above, professional organizations act as an opportunity for different people to aggregate and voice their issues collectively. The same intention also manifests among nursing associations, particularly those that advance the needs of advanced practice nurses. Currently, there are more than a hundred national nursing organizations alongside other international associations, including ANA, NLN, and AACN. Such memberships help with nurses’ certification opportunities, education and training, and role-related competencies. Despite the merits posed, professional organizations are subject to some challenges. Notable ones entail fees that require to be reimbursed monthly or annually, depending on the organization. The other demerit arises due to time constraints, especially when an advanced nurse joins different levels of associations and is provided with leadership roles. Thus, professional organizations must foster the medical infrastructure and recruit more members within their ranks to overcome these challenges.
Questions
- Do professional organizations support the field of nursing enough? If yes, what are the evidence to back the claim?
- While professional organizations are beneficial to advanced practice nurses, what roles do they play in promoting the success of these organizations?
References
Fowler, A. C., Twigg, D., Jacob, E., & Nattabi, B. (2018). An integrative review of rural and remote nursing graduate programmes and experiences of nursing graduates. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5-6), e753-e766.
Moloney, W., Boxall, P., Parsons, M., & Cheung, G. (2018). Factors predicting Registered Nurses’ intentions to leave their organization and profession: A job demands‐resources framework. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(4), 864-875
Morin, K. (2021). Editorial: contributions of professional nursing organizations. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 77(6).
Pauget, B., & Wald, A. (2018). Creating and implementing organizational innovation: the role of professional identity and network embeddedness in healthcare organizations. European Journal of Innovation Management. 1(1).
Rosa, W. E., Upvall, M. J., Beck, D. M., & Dossey, B. M. (2019). Nursing and sustainable development: Furthering the global agenda in uncertain times. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 24(2).
Williams, G., Fulbrook, P., Kleinpell, R., & Alberto, L. (2020). The fifth international survey of critical care nursing organizations: implications for policy. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(6), 652-660.
write