Introduction
The American health care organization tries its best to provide to the public quality, safe and cost-effective health care services. One body cannot attain all health promotion goals; hence, the need for different bodies focusing in different areas of health care but with a common goal. Professional nursing organizations have shown a significant impact in promoting quality of care and individual well-being in U.S. The American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA) is one of the commonly recognized professional nursing organizations in the United States of America. ANA’s mission is to bring changes to the field of nursing informatics by implementing research, professional activities, communication, and education. The following paper focuses on ANIA by analyzing the organization’s aims, relevance to the practice of nursing, process of joining the organization and benefits of becoming a member.
Discussion
Aims of the organization
ANIA is made up of professional nurses and associates whose main goals are as follows:
ANIA is committed to offering specialty into the public by integrating computer science, nursing science, and information science to promote effective management and communication of data, knowledge, wisdom and information in the nursing informatics sector (ANIA, 2015).
ANIA aims at ensuring individual nurses identify nursing informatics as a compulsory specialty needed to deliver high quality and cost-effective health care services (ANIA, 2015).
ANIA have much commitment towards developing their profession and looking for ways of actively engaging the community of other like-minded professionals (ANIA, 2015).
The final objective of ANIA is to improve the overall health of the American people including individuals, families, and individuals by implementing an information management and communication (ANIA, 2015).
Relevance of the organization to the nursing practice
The practice of nursing is a wide area with different careers and programs. The modern organizational and people issues aim at narrowing the gap between people and technology by designing, implementing, and deploying efficient health information technologies and systems. Other professional nursing organizations like the American Psychological Association (APA) offers education in advanced institutional technology aimed at bolstering learning and teaching among nurses. ANIA is one of the American health care professional bodies mandated to achieving this aim. ANIA organization has a lot of relevance to the practice of nursing.
First, ANIA is relevant to the practice of nursing by addressing issues, research, trends, and technologies needed in the successful implementation of the nursing practice. The organization incorporates professionals from different areas of technology expertise such as computer science, nursing science, and information and communications technologies to assist improve health care delivery by guiding nurses on how to implement and apply health information technology in the practice of nursing. Technology acts as the key driver to health care reforms; hence, the need for every health care provider to understand nursing informatics. Technology has been widely used in the area of nursing to promote effective decision making. Every activity in the modern nursing practice relies on technology.
Second, ANIA relevance to the practice of nursing by assisting nurse professionals develops technology skills and knowledge needed to deliver high quality and cost-effective care. ANIA members participate in conducting different types of researcher projects aimed at investigating the impact of nurse informatics to the delivery of care and testing the application of certain ideas and innovations to improve the quality of care. The outcome of these research projects has assisted the practice of nursing to develop new and advanced methods of delivering care to the people that are efficient, effective, and less costly.
Third, ANIA has a lot of relevance to the nursing practice by increasing the interaction between the community and professional nurses. The ANIA professional nursing organization has introduced a Nurse Executive Technology Toolkit (NETT) aimed at improving nurses' competency by satisfying the underserved communities. The toolkit gives nurses and the society a better platform to engage with one another and share useful information necessary to bring changes to the practice through the social media. The nurse falls in a better position to create strategies and vision that applies technology in the support of the nursing practice (American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), 2015).
Finally, the American health care association has a very bright future of improving the patient care and outcome through health information technology. Many professional nursing organizations are taking part in nursing education and practice through integrating nursing health information technology and nursing informatics to better the future of the health care delivery. The ANIA organization works towards making the dream come true by ensuring every nurse executive; either practicing or undergoing training, possess adequate health information technology knowledge. ANIA organization provides other professional organizations with necessary information in the digital world such as online resources, conferences, and membership to improve the practice of nursing in the future (Masters, 2014).
Process of joining ANIA
A student or a new nurse wishing to join ANIA should first download the membership brochure found in the membership is on the organization's website. The brochure assists the applicant to understand the mission of the organization and the expected benefits of registering as a full member of the organization. Additionally, the brochure provides the new applicant with the information about other members of the organization, their achievements since the establishment of the organization, their areas of practice, their roles and different information technology systems they handle. After reading the brochure, the applicant continues to download the application form also found on the membership section of the organization's website. The applicant fills their information on the application.
The basic personal information required includes the name, credentials, employer, address, and personal contact information (email and personal and business phone). The applicant should provide a valid email because the organization sends notifications, news, and other important information to members via the email. The second step involves filling in the profile. The new student or the nurse must provide details of their professional and practice background. The ANIA uses this information to come up with services and programs that meet needs of a specific member. Information required on the profile section include; primary job title, the highest level of education attained, current certifications, years of service in nursing practice, the primary practice setting, the primary clinical area, and systems experience. Other relevant information includes the month and year of birth (ANIA, 2015).
The applicant must pay relevant membership dues to complete the process of membership registration. ANIA provides different membership dues depending on the period of membership. For regular students, the membership dues for one and two years are $79 and $148 respectively. A three months membership fee costs $19.75. On the other hand, ANIA offers volunteer membership program.
Benefits of joining ANIA
Nurses and nurse students who are members of the ANIA organization enjoy some benefits from the organization. First, the organization has a network of about 3000 nurse informatics from all states in America and fifteen other countries. These experts provide new members with skills and knowledge on nursing informatics from different perspectives through numerous publications posted on the organization's membership page. Second, a member enjoys free monthly E-newsletter sent straight to the email that describes different organizational approaches to improving the quality of care. Third, a member gets networking and education opportunities through the local, regional, or the national ANIA meetings. Fourth, new members can easily access previous information from other members by accessing the online digital library. The library stores past webinars and conference offerings giving the member more contact hours.
On the other hand, a member enjoys the benefits of attending ANIA annual conferences at reduced rates, buys ANIA journals and other publications at reduced rates, and can access ANIA online services with fewer subscriptions. Nurse students also get a chance to enjoy online job and career center that provides new postings about new nursing informatics vacancies on a daily basis. Finally, members of ANIA organization acquire nursing informatics certifications at reduced rates (ANIA, 2015).
Summary
Professional nursing organizations play a critical role in promoting quality of health and individual wellbeing in the country. According to Kelly & Tazbir (2014), nurses work in a variety of environments that require effective coordination to achieve a desirable outcome. ANIA has created a significant impact on the U.S. health sector by promoting the use of nursing informatics to solve health care problems. More and more nurses and nurse students are subscribing for ANIA membership to enjoy many benefits associated with the organization in addition to learning more about an application of health information technology in the practice of nursing.
References
ANIA. (2015). About us. Retrieved March 01, 2016 from https://www.ania.org/about-us
Kelly, P. & Tazbir, J. (2014). Essentials of nursing leadership & management (3rd ed.). Clifton
Park, NY: Delmar
Masters, C. (2014). Informatics and Technology in Professional Nursing Practice in Role of
development in professional nursing practice (3rd Ed.). Jones & Bartett Learning.
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