ANA Membership Assembly Day 1
ANA Membership Assembly deliberates key issues affecting nurses and the nursing profession
The American Nurses Association (ANA) Membership Assembly—the governing and official voting body of ANA—kicked off on June 28 in Washington, D.C., with delegates from ANA’s constituent and state nurses associations (C/SNAs), Individual Membership Division, and organizational affiliates gathered to discuss and determine the association’s positions on key issues for nurses and the nursing profession.
In the first of three dialogue forums, delegates considered how licensure and employment policies have created a stigma that interferes with nurses seeking support for their mental and emotional well-being. They also discussed recommended actions to dismantle these systemic barriers.
The second dialogue forum focused on recommendations for action to ensure that all healthcare providers, including RNs, are adequately prepared to provide the highest level of care to military veterans receiving community care outside the Veterans Health Administration.
The third dialogue forum concerned an upcoming revision of the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, with delegates providing feedback on the proposed changes for the 2025 version. The proposed revisions are open for public comment through July 31, 2024.
Voting members of the Assembly will decide actions on these issues on Saturday, June 29.
Confronting major issues
In her address, ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, emphasized that the persistent nurse staffing crisis has “far-reaching consequences for both nurses and patients … when nurses are overburdened, the quality of care and patient safety significantly decline.”
She stressed the combined efforts of ANA and its C/SNAs to achieve safe staffing levels. “Together, we can address this critical issue, ensuring safe staffing levels for nurses and equitable, high-quality care for all patients. Let us continue our collective efforts to make a meaningful difference in healthcare,” she said.
Mensik Kennedy also called out the “intolerable” level of workplace violence that nurses experience and the toll gun violence takes on nurses and the communities they serve. She highlighted ANA’s efforts to combat workplace violence nationally and on the state level, such as urging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop and enforce specific standards for employers to protect healthcare professionals and convening a national workplace violence prevention committee to develop a public health strategy and provide resources for nurses. She also invited attendees to add their insights and suggestions to ANA’s revised position statement on workplace violence, open for public comment through July 8, 2024.
Mensik Kennedy noted steps the organization has taken itself and in collaboration with other nursing organizations to confront racism in nursing and advance diversity, equity, inclusion and access. This work—including awarding a total of $200,000 to 10 organizations with evidence-based initiatives to dismantle systemic racism and contributing $100,000 in grants specifically to support C/SNA projects in this space—is ongoing. “Through these actions, we strive to examine and overcome the systemic racism in the workplace that harms all of us, but especially nurses of color,” she noted. “I also want to thank the C/SNAs for your parallel efforts to combat racism in your communities.”
As she had done in her 2023 address, Mensik Kennedy urged all nurses to get a National Provider Identifier, “the gold standard for identifying and reimbursing health care professionals who provide care to patients.”
Looking ahead: imagining ANA in 2040
ANA Interim CEO Angela Beddoe described the need for ANA not only to advance its current operational and strategic priorities but also to consider how “our decisions affect us 10 minutes from now, 10 months from now and 10 years from now.”
With the future in mind, she described an initiative ANA is undertaking to meet nursing’s needs in 2040. This project, “Integrating Excellence: Imagining ANA in 2040,” will involve taking “a good look at the environment we’re in today and what we anticipate the landscape will look like in 2040 and how we continue to serve the nursing profession with best-in-class practices, innovation, engagement, education, anticipating emerging markets, research, advocacy, nursing programs, financial vitality…just to name a few,” she explained. “We need to reach for the stars and see where we go and grow.”
What’s next
Watch for actions taken by the Assembly and election results on June 29.
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