Professional Associations: Safeguarding Public Interests of Members

In today's corporate world, setting various professional occupational sectors have come to realize the importance of forming associations about their field of practice. Professional associations may be defined as an organization or a body that comprises of various stakeholders or individuals bound together by relation for instance through same professional careers that are aimed at safeguarding the common public interests of its member associates. Professional associations also serve the purpose of maintaining control or oversight of the legitimate practice of the occupation at hand (Budge, Carryer & Wood, 2003).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

In the nursing profession, there is the involvement in a lot of interactions with people from diverse backgrounds either as patients, caregiver, or guardians of the patient being attended to. Under such working environments, there is a whole lot of events that may go wrong or to the opposite of our expectations, thereby leading to the unfolding of events that may require professional attendance to get resolved. Besides the possibility of activity going wrong, there is also the necessity to have a proper representation of the nurse's needs and wants to either the employer or the nursing management board.

Individually, it would be difficult for a given nurse to get their grievances addressed. Also the process would be time-consuming when serving a single individual at a time. However, with the inception of professional associations, a group of people in the same profession who also share the same wants and requirements with respect to their career lives, it is possible to represent such groups with relative ease to higher authorities and get their wants heard and addressed wholesomely as compared to those of a single individual.

The American Nurses Association (ANA)

History

Established in the year 1896, the ANA, i.e., the American Nursing Association is a body that was aimed at the advancement and protection of the nursing profession. The association has its headquarters in Silver Spring in the state of Maryland. Seeing the continued under-representation of the registered nurses in various sectors such as in government as well as the medical sector, multiple stakeholders in the nursing profession at the time decided to start the association. Initial organizational plans were made for the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States of America on September 2, 1896, at Manhattan Beach Hotel near New York City (Budge, Carryer & Wood, 2003). On February 11-12, 1897 those plans were ratified in Baltimore, Maryland at a meeting that coincided with the annual conference of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses (Budge, Carryer & Wood, 2003). Isabel Hampton Robb served as the first president, where a primary early goal of the organization was the enhancement of nursing care for American soldiers (Budge, Carryer & Wood, 2003).

Significance to nurses

The ANA has been an association that has brought numerous benefits to its members all across the 50states. To begin with, before the establishment of the organization, there were little rules and regulations put in place to ensure that the safety standards for nurses in the working environment were observed. As a result, it was a common occurrence for nursing professionals to end up contracting various ailments from their patients during service delivery due to poor working conditions. However, upon the establishment of the organization, these were among the primary issues that the body wanted to be addressed.

Through rigorous motions as well as immense mounting pressure on the government as well as other bodies involved in the professional healthcare service delivery, the organization was able to safeguard a healthy working environment for all nurses. As a result, nurses today can enjoy a safe working space where they can efficiently deliver their services.

The ANA was also able to advocate for healthcare issues that were affecting those in the nursing profession as well as the general population. The body was able to come up with better health insurance policy terms that were manageable and affordable for low-income earners thereby seeing to it that a more vast majority of the population managed to receive quality and affordable health insurance cover.

The purpose and mission of the ANA

The primary mission of the American Nursing Association is to improve the quality of healthcare services for the nurses as well as the quality of patient care. The American Nurses Association (ANA) outlines the vision, values, strategic goals, and strategic objectives that will allow ANA to be a true catalyst for transforming health care and advancing the nursing profession to improve health for all (Darlene & Schank, 2009). The association is, therefore focused on the improvement and betterment of the quality of healthcare services in all the states. By ensuring that every patient can access the best care possible, the association will be able to increase the efficiency of the operations in the nursing profession.

The body is also focused on increasing the number of registered nurses that will ensure that nurses are provided with a flexible amount of working hours that will help reduce burnout at the workplace and also create more employment opportunities for individuals aspiring to join the nursing profession.

Vision

It is the organization's vision that, by the year 2020, if not all, most of the registered professional nurses will be members of the organization which will enable the presentation of all nurses as a powerful, unified force in engaging consumers and transforming health and healthcare (Darlene & Schank, 2009). By attaining this, the American Nursing association will be the biggest in the healthcare sector, with an estimated membership of more than 50 million members. This will consequently enable the body to undertake more developmental oriented undertakings in the health sector that are aimed at the provision of better, quality healthcare services for all Americans.

It is also the association's vision to stimulate and cultivate an innovative culture in the nursing sector to ensure that this profession is also able to stay up to date with the current technological advancements witnessed in a variety of other sectors. By incorporating technology in the nursing profession, it will be possible for nurses to provide patients with accurate assessments and diagnostics that will see to it that the best possible treatment is administered to the patient thereby fostering quick and complete recovery.

Conclusion

Professional associations are the key elements of support behind every successful corporations or profession. With professional associations, it is possible for employees to have their wants as well as professional grievances heard. Besides this, professional organizations also see to it that the workers are provided with the best possible working conditions, thereby increasing productivity as well as the overall performance of the respective organization.

References

Budge, C., Carryer, J., & Wood, S. (2003). Health correlates of autonomy, control, and professional relationships in the nursing work environment. Journal of advanced nursing, 42(3), 260-268.

Darlene Weis, Ph.D., R. N., & Mary Jane Schank, Ph.D., R. N. (2009). Development and psychometric evaluation of the nurse's professional values scale-revised. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 17(3), 221.