American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) is an organization that deals with nurses of psychiatric mental health. It was established in 1986 and offers continuing education as well as a range of professionals to a membership of over 9000 nurses. The organization also champions psychiatric nursing and advocates mental health by disseminating knowledge on diagnosis, treatment, and assessment of people with substance use disorders and mental illness. The main goal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) is to be a unifying face in mental health care (Dilks, 2020). In its service, the APNA organization fulfills its core purpose of inclusivity, empowerment, and collegiality.
The APNA is utilized as a tool for growth, networking, and leadership by stakeholders. The organization leads to the development of innovative alliances with stakeholders to further its role. It also acts as an expert voice for psychiatric mental health care stakeholders and further guides the curriculum and several studies to elaborate issues of the community and the psychiatric mental health it represents.
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Mission
The APNA achieves its mission through an elected Board of Directors. The Board of Directors comprises nine members who are directed by the strategic directions of the organization and administers the organization with the assistance of task committee forces that deal with significant problems in mental health nursing such as research, administration, and practice. The committee structure as well as the task force team provides room members on the board of the organization to contribute.
Vision
The vision of the APNA is to offer affordable nursing of psychiatric mental health and further establishing resources for prospective nurses, emerging, as well as ensuring complex collaboration in the community. It also advocates for both psychiatric and mental health by creating positions on significant issues, disseminating insight and PMH development in nursing, and further facilitating evidence-based advances in diagnosis, treatment and examination of individuals with mental problems.
The APNA has approximately 12,500 nurses practicing psychiatric mental health worldwide. Among 12,500 nurses, 60 percent are registered nurses of psychiatric advanced practice and 40 percent represent psychiatric registered nurses (American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 2017). As a member of the APNA organization, you are eligible in working in all settings such as inpatient, administrative, public, and private health institutions.
Nurses to network in the specialty field need to gain knowledge and experience. The APNA organization covers over 12,000 PMH nurses in almost all levels of education who practice in different areas such as inpatient, research, and administration, forensic, military, and private practice. The organization offers full-time students and registered nurses with membership. The APNA also provides fellow members in the psychiatric mental health nursing with a platform where they can share ideas with other professionals whose experiences and expertise are multifaceted in the field. The organization also enriches nurses with the knowledge and the knowledge acquired by these nurses is trickled down to mental illness patients.
The APNA is committed to information distribution to the PMH nurses. Apart from the interactive websites, chapter system, peer-reviewed journals, and electronic as well as print newsletters; the APNA maintains a networking website for its members only. As indicated by Pearson (2019), the organization also runs member blogs and Member Bridge supports. In the APA news newsletter, the organization holds monthly communication with host members and 3,700 nurses registered on the database. The newsletter reports several issues such as regulation, policy, and legislation in nursing.
Apart from the APNA organization being committed to disseminating information, it has developed a program that provides education to PMH nurses which draws the most current mental health research development and practice to the PMH nursing communities. It is also accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation to offer continued nursing education. Additionally, it provides various live and online continuing programs in nursing education.
References
American Psychiatric Nurses Association. (2017). American Psychiatric Nurses Association calls for proactive health care policies to ease burden of mental illness and substance use disorders in new position paper [Press release].
Dilks, S. T. (2020). Pandemic: Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses Providing Hope in the Midst of Chaos. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 1078390320918547.
Pearson, G. S. (2019). Supporting our new psychiatric nurses.
