Report on Professional Organization Essay 
Abstract
Both the American Nursing Association and the American Holistic Nursing Association introduce utmost ethical codes and moral values which each nurses should possess. This is of particular concern to dignity, individual-centered approach, collaborative care, and healing. All these principles are integrated into nurses’ daily practices to ensure sufficient care. Further, both organizations make an accent on education and research which should become the obligatory condition for nurses who should be committed to self-improvement and professional determination. The purpose of the paper is to analyze mission, vision, and ideology of two nursing organization to define the values and responsibilities that nurses should acquire to become a good healthcare professional. Both organizations provide a deeper insight into how good nurses should gain experience in medical practices through constant educational advancement and promotion of personal skills and qualities. Additionally, the analysis of two organizations can allow shaping a vision of future goals and problems which should be considered to increase the quality of healthcare.
Report on Professional Organization
American Nursing Organization
History
The American Nurses Association is a service professional organization that represents the interests of registered nurses by means of its constitute nurses association and its company’s affiliates. The organization promotes the nursing profession by advancing high quality standards of nursing practice, supporting the rights of nursing professionals in the workplace, introducing a realistic and positive viewpoint of nursing, as well as by ratifying the principle in the Congress along with regulatory agencies on healthcare that influence nurses.
The first convention of the American Nursing Association took place in 1896 when twenty nurses attended it. Its original title was introduced in 1911 (American Nurses Association, 2014a). The attendees were not registered nurse; the organization did not have laws and regulating during that period. Over century later, the American Nurses Association has promoted to membership, published a collection of scientific literature on nursing practice, improved its services, introduced a range of professional nursing activities, and developed instruments tools for registered nurses to be ratified in the field of specialization. However, most of all became legislatively engaged to promote the nursing professions for the roles, responsibilities and practices to be respected (American Nurses Association, 2014a). The American Nurses Association has introduced new opportunities for nursing practices and has advocated nurses irrespective of their membership status.
Mission and Purpose
The main mission of the association consists in improving and sustaining health for all individuals. The organization is also committed to ensuring adequate delivery of well-educated and experienced nurses, as well as to meeting the needs and concerns of nurses, who are considered to be health care consumers (American Nursing Association, 2014c). The ANA introduces the nursing profession by introducing high standards of quality of nursing practices. It should be stressed that the organization is also aimed at introducing health care reforms that are confined to restructuring health care system and delivering health care in society-based environment. The increased role of registered nursing professionals contributes to the higher quality of deliver of primary and basic health care. Obtaining federal support for nursing training education ensures the change and ameliorates the health care environment.
Membership Activities
The importance of membership activities within the American Nursing Association is emphasized because it contributes to the health and safety of the community. There are multiple programs aimed at improving the delivery of health care by registered nurses. The latter are aware of the fact that communicating and teamwork stand at the core of successful cooperation and accomplishment of tasks. For example, there is Membership Value program that seeks to provide the most effective member programs that deliver benefits to the community and influence the welfare of both the clients and nursing professionals. As such, professional liability insurance is obligatory for each nurse who can enjoy membership insurance and could be provided the necessary products and services. While noticing the name and understanding the activities, the insurance programs can provide a seamless shift without influence on current insurance coverage. Additionally, there are also NEBCO Life and Health Insurance Plans, which introduce additional help permitting registered nurse to receive medical education for free due to the coverage of medical expenses.
When it comes to membership activities, the emphasis should be placed on the reforms and activities introduced by registered nurses. There is a strong connection between adequate ratios between nurses and patients, as well as safe patient outcomes. Finding the optimal ration should be the major concern of membership activities contributing to the experience and training of registered nursing. In this respect, ensuring sufficient stuffing levels can lead to the reduction of medication and medical errors, decreasing morality and patient complication, improving nurse retention and reducing turnover rates, and deducing nurse fatigue. In this respect, perceiving nurses as clients who should also undergo social benefits and pension plan is essential because it contributes to the overall productivity and reliability of the organization. Healthcare leaders should be able to develop innovative and competitive strategies via a collaborative effort for developing solutions that will ensure a safer environment for both registered nurses and for patients. Staffing solutions and strategies should be based on strong leadership support to assure the relevant number of experienced registered nurses who can deliver safe quality patient care (American Nurses Association, 2014c). The best staffing model should be introduced through the approach that acknowledges a unique set of services for high quality patient care during the certain time of day. In general, the membership activities should also imply the strict allocation of responsibilities, as well as collaborative and holistic approaches used by the registered nurses. In such a way, it is possible to work out long-term solution that contribute to the quality and expertized assistance for patients.
American Holistic Nurses Association
History
The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) delivers educational opportunities for nurses, health care professionals and the public in all aspects of care and healing. AHNA is a non-governmental organization that serves for over 4,500 members and about 145 local communities in the United States and abroad. In the end of 2006, the holistic nursing organization was acknowledged as an official nursing specialty. The American Nurses Association recognized the organization and introduced the scope and principles in practice. AHNA serves as a link between traditional healthcare and alternative healing practices. Being nursing professionals, holistic nurses introduce alternative and complementary modalities into daily clinical practices to ensure treatment of the entire person. They consider healing as an interaction between an individual seeking a therapeutic intervention and a practitioner.
Mission and Purposes
The company’s vision consists in nurturing wholeness of an individual and inspiring healing and peace. AHNA promotes educational opportunities and makes efforts in recognizing holistic nurses as a non-governmental organization that combines conventional and unconventional approaches to treatment. Additionally, the organization has placed an emphasis on the practice of alternative medicine, research. It also controls and responds to state policy reforms across the United States (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2014). In particular, AHNA introduced feedback to the FDA in regard to its draft document called Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. Being a resource foundation for the members, AHNA offers a supportive community, continuing education, informative publications, networking opportunities, focus on self-care, and liability insurance. It should be stressed that the organization is the only full-service institution that represents holistic nurses and policies relating to holistic treatment (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2014). The organization also acknowledges the connection between holistic nursing and patient satisfaction. The connection between professional fulfillment and holism is recognized within the AHNA’s framework as well.
Being a holistic organization, AHNA seeks to introduce continuing education for health care professionals involved in holistic practices. It also helps to improve the healthcare workplace setting by integrating the concept about holistic nursing (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2014). Third, the organization works on educating professionals about holistic nursing framework, as well as integrative healthcare. Finally, the association strives to ensure the availability of necessary resources, as well as promotes scholarship and research in the sphere of holistic nursing.
Membership Activities
Becoming the member of AHNA has a number of advantages. For instance, in case nurses want to visit interactive discussion forums, they will have a possibility to interact with other experienced, talented professional who are dedicated to sharing their expertise and commitment to holistic nursing. Being a part of online and traditional community ensure greater collaboration and interaction. The members of the organization have access to valuable information due to the abundance of AHNA’s publications, conferences, Web forums, and local Chapters. Promoting self-care and wellness implies the focus on healing and welfare, which is ensured with high quality care provided by holistic nurses. Further, the participation in membership activities underscores the necessity for advocating holistic care at a national level. The AHNA promotes and participates in public awareness reforms, media interactions, and other relations established with healthcare organization, which can contribute to the vision of holistic nursing. Finally, being a member of the AHNA means participating in the improvement of skills through educational and research opportunities offered by the organization. In such a way, holistic nurses can learn more about establishing long-lasting relationships.
There are also many other opportunities and programs promoted by the organization that can ensure the development of new, alternative approaches to holistic treatment of patients. However, all of them are directed at delivering holistic services. Holistic nursing is a valuable nursing practice that pays attention to nursing theories, expertise, knowledge and intuition to control nurses and make them become therapeutic assistance.
Personal Definition of Nursing and Roles
Being a nurse means a change to provide patients with high-quality which affects their health both at psychological and physical level. The nurse, therefore, should be the advocator of patients’ values and needs. He/she should ensure welfare, safety, confidential information, and dignity. Nursing involves many opportunities and provides a chance for meeting a range of people with different social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. The nursing profession is composed of many types of responsibilities, involving such spheres of influence as home health, oncology, surgery, etc. At this point, nurses play a vital role in arranging scheduling, delivering care for patient after a surgery, or take control of the medication taking. To my mind, being a nurse means satisfying the needs of patients and understanding their psychological, social, and cultural problems. Nurses should also cooperate and communicate with the patients to make them feel comfortable and protected. They should also do their best in searching for the best treatment option. Thus, being a nurse means helping people through the most challenging periods in their lives.
Apart from patient care, being a registered nurse employs a range of scientific explorations and evidenced-based research. Searching for new and innovative treatment techniques should be a constant process that would allow the nursing organization improves the quality of healthcare. I also agree with the idea about nursing practices which was provided by Taylor and Renpenning (2011). Specifically, the scholars argue, “to reach a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and individual or group must be able to identify and realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment” (Taylor & Renpenning, 2011, n. p.). In this context, nurses should conceive a new dimension and conception of health, which embraces physical, cultural, mental, and social perspective of human development. Hence, being a nurse implies gaining a deeper understanding of human health and complete welfare implies. At this point, nurses should take into consideration the role of external environment in treating patients. Indeed, external stimuli should always be considered while introducing a new treatment and developing a new approach. Constant development, search for new treatment option and constant professional advancement are among the major objective that nurses should pursue to improve the quality of healthcare and provide an exceptional approach to treating patient and meeting their diverse needs. The choice of a holistic approach and collaborative care is the best one because it introduces new approaches and means for delivering many innovations and techniques. These values are also pursued in the American Nursing Association.
While considering the mission statement and values promoted by the AHNA, the attention should be paid to holistic nursing as a part of medical and psychological treatment of patients. In this respect, being a nurse means embracing a patient as a whole individual with social, cultural, and psychological background (Frisch, 2000). Additionally, the organization teaches to skillfully combine traditional and non-traditional methods in treating individuals. In such a way, nurses can cognizes what is means to be a supporter of patients who should be regarded as ill individuals, but as personalities with certain needs at the moment (Dossey & Keegan 2008). Understanding individuals’ needs and concerns can allow the nurses find the appropriate treatment for a specific individual. Thus, an individual-based approach and collaborative efforts can improve the quality of health and promote a new vision of health care profession.
Organization’s Contribution to Understanding Nursing and Its Role in Professional Practice
The attention to nursing and its role in professional practice is accurately and clearly introduced in the mission statement and ideological base of the American Nursing Association. There is a wide range of ethical issues that serve as a guide for nurses who should also be included into their responsibilities, which should be considered with the nursing care, as well as ethical obligations of the nursing profession. There are specific professional standards for practices. In particular, Nurses trust ANA due to the organization’s commitment to guidelines, standards, and principles. The nurses and other professionals work effectively to promote the nursing profession by identifying the priorities and needs for registered nurses along the nation. By introducing the work, the ANA can introduce directions to nursing professionals, affect legislation and introduce a theoretical framework to ensure an objective evaluation of the nursing experience. The ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses “…explicates the goals, values, and ethical precepts that direct the profession of nursing. The ANA believes the Code of Ethics is nonnegotiable and that each nurse has an obligation to uphold and adhere to the code of ethics” (The American Nursing Association, 2014b). In this respect, the organization has a positive influence on the development of roles and responsibilities of nurses.
When it comes to the contributions made by the AHNA, the emphasis should be placed on the core holistic values that nurses should hold as a part of professional ethics. It includes caring and healing to preserve the dignity and wholeness of the self. The main object is a person, not a patient who should receive care, encouragement, and support. While ethical code is an integral component for professional nursing, a holistic perspective focuses on the responsibilities and duties provided by nurses. Further, human-to-human interaction is also among the values which are supported by holistic care professionals that define the contribution to the relationship in the community. In the context of holistic nursing, the main responsibility of nursing professionals consists in meeting the client’s needs and predict future concerns. The nurse should possess all necessary information gained in professional practice and be able operate this information effectively. Apart from high quality care ensured for patients, nurses should also be able to maintain effective cooperative relationships with their colleagues, as well as nurture each other and shape helpful experience and knowledge to advance the quality of care services. All these issue should be regarded as the primary responsibilities and duties which nurses should perform and ensure nursing practice. Constant improvement and competence should ensure the respectable image of an organization delivering healthcare services to its clients.
Each organization explains specific responsibilities, purposes, duties, and values that each nursing professional should possess. But irrespective of the mission, the profession of nursing is premised on universal values of moral that incorporate such values as kindness, dignity, compassion, caring, love, and honesty. These moral principles should be tackled by the organization to ensure the welfare of the organization and provide a high quality of health care services. More importantly, each nursing organization should have an educational basis for their nurses and health care professionals to ensure constant improvement and encourage nurses conduct their personal research in the sphere of nursing, including treatment, consulting, and patient behavior. The latter is of great value because human communication is the key to successful treatment and search of effective treatment options.
Conclusion
Constant aspiration for self-fulfillment is the key to advancing professional competence and introducing a greater quality of health care standards. In such way, both organizations exercise quality, morale, and dignity by respecting an individual with diverse social, cultural, and ethnic background. Finally, the nursing practice should also be accompanied with holistic values which promote human-to-human cooperation and person-centered care. All these issues are essential for nurses who are committed to the welfare of their patients. The analysis of ANA and AHNA proves that nurses should pursue both traditional and alternative medical practice to gain experience in the field.
