American Nurses Association

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a 501(c)(6) professional organization to advance and protect the profession of nursing. It started in 1896 as the Nurses Associated Alumnae and was renamed the American Nurses Association in 1911. It is based in Silver Spring, Maryland and Jennifer Mensik Kennedy is the current president.

The ANA states nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

19th century
Initial organizational plans were made for the Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States of America on September 2, 1896, at Manhattan Beach Hotel near New York City. On February 11–12, 1897 those plans were ratified in Baltimore at a meeting that coincided with the annual conference of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses. Isabel Hampton Robb served as the first president. A major early goal of the organization was the enhancement of nursing care for American soldiers.

ICN was founded in 1899 by nursing organizations from Great Britain, the ANA for the United States, and Germany as charter members. The first ever ICN Congress was held in Buffalo New York in 1901.

20th century
In 1947, the next congress, the Ninth ICN Quadrennial Congress in 1947, was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Attended by over 5,000 delegates representing 250,000 nurses in 32 countries, it was a major step forward in re-establishing international peacetime relations in the healthcare community. ANA leadership made all arrangements including locating lodgings for attendees among local residents, and raising funds to cover travel costs.

In 1970, Mattiedna Johnson spoke at an ANA convention on the lack of representation of African American nurses. She believed it was a major issue which led to the founding of National Black Nurses Association in 1971.

21st century
In February 2022, ANA partnered with Congresswoman Deborah Ross and Congressman Dave Joyce on the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) Act, which is designed to address the nation-wide shortage of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) and improve care for survivors of sexual violence. It bill was also endorsed by RAINN and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Mission
The association is a professional organization representing registered nurses (RNs) in the United States through its 54 constituent member associations. The ANA is involved in establishing standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, advancing the economic and general welfare of nurses.

Statements by ANA have been featured in publications arguing against mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios. The American Nurses Association says it has "real concerns about the establishment of fixed nurse-to-patient ratio numbers."

The ANA also has three subsidiary organizations, the American Academy of Nursing, formed to serve the public and nursing profession by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge, the American Nurses Foundation, the charitable and philanthropic arm, and the American Nurses Credentialing Center, which credentials nurses in their specialty and credentials facilities that exhibit nursing excellence.

Publications

 * American Nurse Today
 * The American Nurse
 * OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing

Notable members

 * Katharine Jane Densford, president 1944–48. Densford testified before Congress during World War II regarding wartime nursing recruitment.
 * Lavinia Dock, nursing educator, public health advocate, author, and suffragist.
 * Mary Keys Gibson, involved in desegregation efforts in 1948
 * Mary Eliza Mahoney, a founder of the former National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908.
 * Helen Maria Roser, nursing educator, worked for ANA's Professional Counseling & Placement Service, 1945 to 1953
 * M. Elizabeth Shellabarger, Wyoming State Nurses' Association, president
 * Vera Blanche Thomas, Arizona State Nurses' Association, president 1927-28