The American Nurses Association (A. N. A)

AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION

Nursing is a developing field that comprise of nurses with various individual and political needs and concerns. As such, the nursing field needs association and affiliation that backers these needs and promotes excellence in nursing. One of such association is the American Nurses Association (A.N.A).

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a professional nursing organization that was formerly known as the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United Stated and Canada in 1896, and received its current name in 1911. Its first president was Isabel Hampton Robb, who advocated for nursing reforms that supported the ideas of emerging nursing profession (Mason, Leavitt, & Chaffee, 2012, p. 13). The organization was established to carter for the needs and welfare of nurses and its mission is deeply implanted in advocacy and patient safety. Currently the organization represents 3.6 million registered nurses in the US.

The ANA’s primary mission is to progresses the nursing profession by encouraging high standards

of nursing practice, promoting a safe and ethical work environment, reinforcing the health and wellness of nurses, and advocating on health care issues that affect nurses and the public (American Nurses Association, 2015). As one of its essential objectives, the American Nurses Association is excessively devoted in guaranteeing that there is a sufficient amount of highly knowledgeable nurses by providing continued learning and competency through seminars and workshops. Other goals include ensuring that the standards of the nursing practice are established and maintained and also ensuring that nurses advance both in the general welfare and also economically (Association, 2015).
Moreover, the ANA work collectively on political issues and have stressed the importance for nurses to become politically active to make sure their needs are not being ignored by political leaders.

ANA also advocates for the health and safety of nurses and patients on optimal staffing and adequate rest to prevent medication errors among other important issues. The ANA also supports patient safety and the need for better policies to prevent medication errors by urging nurses and employers to “collaborate to reduce the risks of nurse fatigue and sleepiness associated with long working hours” (American Nurses Association, 2015). These factors have been known to be the fundamental causes that often leads to medication errors. And the need for better error avoidance strategies or medication management practice and administration system is becoming crystal clear as the number of medication errors are increasing daily in the health care

industry.
The American Nurse Association supports the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals and have issued guidelines and seminars on patient safety and urges nurses to comply with the six rights of medication administration as well as ensuring no interruptions during medication administration. As the number of medication errors continues to rise daily, I believe the need for increase advocacy for safe medication administration is needed. Because nurses are in an ideal position to influence and demand safer medication administration system. I strongly believe other alternatives needs to be explored for resolving medication errors, such as the implementation of medication bar coding system, automated dispensing cabinets, and better staffing.
The use of a bar coding system for medication administration especially in nursing home settings can contribute significantly to patient safety and quality of care by enforcing the use of the six rights of medication administration, thus reducing the rate of medication errors. The use of the automated dispensing cabinets will ensure the right drug is dispensed, and using optimal staffing as ANA has indicated will contribute to better patient outcome and satisfaction.