Excellence in Nursing: Awards to be Presented at AACN’s Academic Nursing Leadership Conference

At the 2024 Academic Nursing Leadership Conference (ANLC), taking place on October 14-16, in Washington, DC, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) will honor several individuals and member institutions with awards for their outstanding contributions to nursing education, research, and practice.

Virtual Reality Simulation Improves PICU Nurses’ Recognition of Impending Respiratory Failure

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center used virtual reality training to teach clinical assessment skills and improve novice nurses’ recognition of pediatric respiratory distress. Months later, nurses in the VR group were significantly more likely to correctly recognize impending respiratory failure, identify respiratory distress without impending respiratory failure, and recognize altered mental status.

New Assessment Tool Supports Onboarding ICU Nurses

AACN Knowledge Assessment Tool helps hospitals better identify knowledge gaps and educational needs of critical care and progressive care nurses during orientation and onboarding. The online assessment randomly generates validated questions in over 10 areas and aligns with AACN’s Essentials of Critical Care Orientation course used by 1,000+ healthcare facilities.

AACN Applauds the Reintroduction of the Future Advancement of Academic Nursing (FAAN) Act in Congress

AACN applauds the introduction of the Future Advancement of Academic Nursing (FAAN) Act (H.R.7266/S.3770) by our Senate Nursing Caucus Co-Chair, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and House Nursing Caucus Vice Co-Chair, and nurse Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14). This legislation calls for historic investments to address immediate nursing education needs, while providing proactive measures to meet future workforce demands.

New Data Show Enrollment Declines in Schools of Nursing, Raising Concerns About the Nation’s Nursing Workforce

According to new data released today by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the number of students in entry-level baccalaureate nursing programs decreased by 1.4% last year, ending a 20-year period of enrollment growth in programs designed to prepare new registered nurses (RNs). With declines also recorded in master’s and PhD programs, collective action must be taken to strengthen pathways into nursing to ensure the nation’s healthcare needs are met. Despite the decrease in enrolled students, nursing schools turned away thousands of qualified applicants last year due largely to a shortage of faculty and clinical training sites.

AACN Rounds with Leadership – Accelerating Momentum for Change

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing recognizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as critical to nursing education and fundamental to developing a nursing workforce able to provide high quality, culturally appropriate, and congruent health care.

Rounds with Leadership: Combating Racism and Cultivating Inclusion

At a time when our nation is struggling to address systemic racism and the inequities that have long plagued communities of color, it is truly unsettling to see the recent Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, which calls for restrictions on diversity training offered at federal agencies.

New Version of AACN’s Critical Care Orientation Course Includes Stand-alone and Specialty-focused Options

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses has released the latest version of its Essentials of Critical Care Orientation online course. Since its initial launch in 2002, ECCO has been used at more than 1,100 hospitals and healthcare facilities as an integral part of their critical care orientation or to supplement classroom-based education.

Standardized Curriculum Introduces ICU Nurses to ECMO

Vanderbilt University Medical Center designed and rapidly deployed a curriculum specifically to equip nurses new to ECMO with the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to provide proficient and safe care for patients receiving ECMO. The pre-COVID ECMO training proved to be an effective, resource-efficient and pragmatic solution that can be used across different types of ICUs and across institutions.