Benchmark assignment Networking Through Health Care Association
Find a health care association you would be interested in joining and follow it on LinkedIn® or subscribe to its newsletter.
Gather details about membership fees and any discounts available with the membership.
Identify current association members via social media and reach out to them to find out more about their experiences with and the benefits of having a membership.
Write a 700- to 1,050-word proposal to your employer outlining the benefits of joining the selected health care association and the benefits of attending a meeting, convention or conference in-person.
Provide a rationale of how your membership to the health care association and attending its event(s) will benefit your employer, contribute to your job responsibilities, and promote your own professional development. Include insight from the relationships you established to reinforce your rationale.
Cite 3 reputable references to support your assignment (e.g., trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works, or other sources of similar quality).
Note: If you are unable to, or would rather not, complete the assignment in LinkedIn, you may submit the assignment using a Word document. Please let your faculty know if you intend to choose this option. In the document, please include all necessary components as described in the assignment instructions. If you have any questions, or need any clarification, about the requirements, please ask your instructor.
Format your assignment according to APA guidelines.
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Solution
Health Care Association I would Like to Join.
I would like to join the American Nurses Association, which works to advance the nursing profession and improve health and healthcare. The Association amplifies the voice of nurses by lobbying executive agencies and the congress and offering information and tools empowering nurses to share expertise and perspective directly with policymakers. The mission of ANA is to advance and promote the improvement of nursing and health standards and stimulate and promote the professional development of the member nurses and advance their general and economic welfare. ANA achieves its purpose by advocating on behalf of the members at the top government levels where conception, debating, and implementation of policies occur. ANA seeks to empower the nurses who have the capacity to revolutionize the approach to care for better healthcare outcomes. The Association believes that advocacy is the pillar of nursing, with nurses playing a major role in advocating for their patients in their communities and workplaces. ANA recognizes the value of legislative and political advocacy. The purpose of the ANA resonates with my personal view on how nurses can impact the healthcare industry for improved care and persona development (American Nurse Association, n.d).
Memberships Fees and Other Discounts Available
The cost of ANA membership varies depending on the place of residence and type of membership. ANA offers two membership options that include the Only membership and the ANA and State membership. The Only membership category allows a member to be a full voting member of the Association, and one can be offered discounts and benefits. The ANA and State membership, on the other hand, offers two memberships, one to the ANA and one to the state nursing association. The third category of membership is E-membership, only available in certain states and offers a virtual ANA membership but does not include certain benefits.
The cost of having an Only membership is $191 annually or $16.42 monthly. If a person wants to join on both the national level and the local States Nursing Association, the costs range from $200 to $500 annually, depending on the state. For example, fees in California and Michigan are $275 and $258. Fees for e-membership with limited benefits are $45 annually. According to one member in the social media forum, they reported receiving a membership fee of $512 in Illinois. Discounts are available to members that pay annually as the Association does not offer a monthly payment options offer. Based on the financial resources available, one can save money by opting for Only members and the e-membership categories. The choice of membership can also be influenced by the availability of the membership category. For example, the Only membership is not available in all 50 states. I have an advantage since the membership is available in my state.
Benefits of Joining the Association
Membership to the Association has various benefits to the individual members in terms of professional growth and development and the health care facility, which benefits from improved services offered by the professional. The facility will benefit from improved outcomes, which will result from the implementation of evidence-based practice. Membership to the Association provides access to research resources such as CINAHL, a database with more than 3,000 journals from different fields of nursing. The database also offers bibliographic entries for nursing dissertations, standards of practice, selected conference proceedings, and educational software (American Nurse Association, n.d). Access to these materials improves the level of knowledge and skills, improving the capacity to provide improved care, make better and more informed decisions, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Knowledge relating to standards of practice can facilitate delivery of care to patients and increase adherence to ethical and legal standards decreasing additional costs related to legal and ethical consequences.
Another benefit involves mentorship programs offered by the Association and acts as a networking platform and career development tool by connecting professionals with their mentor and mentee. The platform can be an avenue to meet different mentors in my field. Having a mentor has been associated with the promotion of evidence-based practice, retention of nursing staff and development of nurses to nurse leaders (Hoover et al., 2020). Having a mentor will not only impact my professional and career growth and development but will also be beneficial to the facility due to improved performance and outcomes associated with the implementation of evidence-based practice. Being mentored also increases the capacity of mentoring other nurses in the facility, especially new nurses increasing staff retention in the facility.
Membership to the organization also offers access to medication safety tools and resources through the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, which offers a wide range of information and resources that enables health care professionals to prevent medical errors, including medication errors (American Nurse Association, n.d). The institution also offers timely topics in essential areas such as medication safety, with experts providing advice and education on patient safety and educational issues. Medication errors are one major challenge in healthcare organizations and in the facility. Reduction of medical errors will not only save the facility’s healthcare-related costs but will also improve health outcomes and increase patient outcomes improving the reputation of the facility in the areas. The facility will have an improved reputation and image, increasing the demand for healthcare services from the facility.
The membership also increases the chance of career development as I have a chance to access tuition discounts for nurses. The Tuition Discount Program gives members of ANA access to various educational programs across the country, enabling the members to advance their nursing careers and their nursing knowledge. I, therefore, have a chance of having access to financial resources to facilitate advanced nursing training. Some of the offers available include 20% off undergraduate and 15% offer graduate tuition and discounted fees. Such offers will make it easier to further education while still working in the facility and without much impacts, such as increasing working hours which may impact my productivity due to stress and burnout related to work overload.
References
American Nurse Association. (n.d). About ANA. Retrieved from
https://www.nursingworld.org/ana/about-ana/
American Nurse Association. (n.d). Member Benefits. Retrieved from
https://www.nursingworld.org/membership/member-benefits/
Hoover, J., Koon, A. D., Rosser, E. N., & Rao, K. D. (2020). Mentoring the working nurse: a scoping review. Human resources for health, 18(1), 1-10.
https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-020-00491-x