Professional Nursing Organization
The American Psychiatrist Nurses Association APNA is an organization which represents and fights for the rights of psychiatrist nurses and psychiatric Nurse practitioners. From its foundation in 1989, the organization has a total of ten thousand members in America, making it the largest professional membership organization which commits itself to the treatment and the control of psychiatric disorders (“American Psychiatric Association,” 2017). With a total of nine members in the Board of Directors who oversee the various committees of the organization like the award and recognition committee, the American Psychiatric Association lays out its strategies with the primary objective of meeting its mission and vision.
The mission of the organization states that the American Psychiatric Nurses Association is professionally structured to promote the science and edification of psychiatric mental health nursing (“American Psychiatric Association,” 2017). The vision of the organization says that the American Psychiatric Nurses Association is under a prudent direction created by the Board of Directors and well versed by the membership. APNA performs several functions which include but not limited to the provision of educational services for quality psychiatric mental health nursing. The process of education entails enlightening members on how to care and treat persons with psychiatric disorders to facilitate professional advancement.
The America Psychiatric Nurses Association also analyses the performances of their members in the different health organizations and ensures remuneration for those members who perform well. The remuneration of members encourages the members to work hard so that they can perform well. The other function that the organization performs is the evaluation of research proposal that its members submit. The grant review committee of APNA performs the evaluation process and approves funding considering the project’s scientific merits. The chairperson of the grant committee is Danny Willis.
APNA also makes donations to those patients who come from families that cannot meet the medical expenses that arise as a result of hospitalization of their family members. For one to receive a donation from the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, he or she must be a patient of mental health-related issues. The organization ensures successful contributions through the foundation committee. The organization also informs the public on ways to prevent mental disorders among family and friends by carrying out educational programs through the committee of public information.
The members of the organization fetch several advantages from their membership. The American psychiatric nurses association offer mentoring match benefits to its members (Davis et al., 2016). The mentor match programs to members are crucial to new psychiatric nurses. The APNA mentor match connects new members with the database of all members of the organization who have the interest of finding mentors or mentees. The program help in creating togetherness in the organization creating a free flow of information in the organization.
The professional organization for psychiatric nurses also supports members who want to further their education in their field of specialization (“American Psychiatric Association,” 2017). With the help of the foundation committee and the grant committee, the members with interest in furthering their education get funds and materials that support their scholarly goals. APNA also avails free monthly newsletters and subscriptions to the bi-monthly journals for the American psychiatric nurses association. The opportunity to continue learning results from the online libraries that APNA creates for its members. Members also receive specialist liability insurance services. Psychiatric nurses get insurance services from their organization. The organization pays insurance premiums for its members depending on the terms of the insurance covers that their members take.
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association get networking opportunities and publication discounts from their membership. The organization connects their members with the outside world with the primary objective of making their services know. Members get employment services from the connection opportunities that the organization avails. Members get publication discounts on popular mental health books.
The head office of the organization is at Fairview Park Dr, Fall Church VA 22042 USA. The contact number is +1 703-204-1250. The first requirement to join the organization is that a person must be a practitioner of health services who specialize in psychiatric nursing. The person with the interest to join the organization must be an American citizen. The psychiatrist must be in a position to pay the required amount of registration fee which the board of director classifies according to various groups like the affiliate groups, the retired psychiatrist, regular members and those in the military.
Different members of the organization appreciate their memberships. Some most admit that they value their membership in the organization because it is the organization that gets what they do. Other members appreciate that the organization gets better each day. Every day the organization makes a difference lives of the psychiatrists who are in the organization. Several people in the organization refer to the good connection that the organization creates as the primary reason why they enjoy being in APNA. Jane Houston reports that “she is proud of the job in psychiatric nursing that the organization gave her after leaving school.” The next topic of discussion in the next meeting will be on strategies for minimizing new cases of mental disorders.
Reference
American Psychiatric Association. (2017). The practice of electroconvulsive therapy: recommendations for treatment, training, and privileging (A task force report of the American Psychiatric Association). American Psychiatric Pub.
Davis, C. G., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Larson, J. (2016). Making sense of loss and benefiting from the experience: two construals of meaning. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75(2), 561.