Professional Nursing Associations in Mental Health - APNA

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1NURSING
Description of the organization and its significance to nursing:
Professional nursing associations in nursing are important to generate flow of ideas and
proactively advocate for the needs of nurses (Nerland & Karseth, 2015). I am interested in the
specialty area of mental health and one of the professional organizations that relates to the
specialty area includes the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA). It is largest
professional organization committed to the practice area of psychiatric mental health nursing
(PMH) and prevention of mental illness. The main purpose and vision of the organization is to
facilitate professional advancement and by providing quality PMH nursing education and
advocating for mental health by dissemination current development in the area of nursing. The
vision of the organization is based on the core value of innovation, transparency, empowerment,
inclusivity, integrity and stewardship (American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA), 2018).
Being a member of APNA provides people with the benefit of getting access to several
benefits like continuing education, mentor matching, monthly newsletters and free subscription
to bi-monthly journal of the association. Members get plenty of resource for continuing
education.
Benefits and importance of the network:
Networking is important for the nurses entering the specialty field of psychiatric nursing
to help them in engage in continuous professional development and career advancement.
Networking helps in coming in contact with like minded people and gaining insight into how
nursing to recent development in the specialty area which is necessary to embrace evidence
based practice today (Carlson, 2016). APNA creates networking opportunities for nurses by
connecting members with their peers and profession. APNA has developed local nurse networks