The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the body that governs more than 700 education facilities that offer nursing as a course. It comes up with the minimum requirements for the curriculum offered and is involved in the general improvement of the nursing profession. Ensuring adequate collection and storage of data, carrying out research and setting up various programs are all ways in which the AACN ensures these educational facilities are up to standards. It also influences the public perception of the nursing profession. AACN was founded in 1969 and its membership consists of private and public institutions of higher learning.
The AACN standards and guidelines state that the goals of every Masters Nursing NP program should encompass nine guiding pillars (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). They stipulate that it is essential that the findings integrate various aspects from a wide range of fields in science before coming up with a final conclusion on the matter. A structural pipeline enables the establishment of quality in the institutions because decisions are made faster and easily and also there is a formation of better working relations. It ensures that the master student nurses get to duplicate what they have learned in school in real circumstances as well as incorporation of technological advancements in communication and patient care. While a masters-prepared nurse is expected to be involved in nursing policy development they must collaborate with other experts in the medical field to improve the provision of health services. Finally, they should be able to apply a wide range of skills and concepts in their delivery of services understanding that at this level of nursing practice a superior grasp of the knowledge in this field and those in other essential sciences is needed (National Task Force on Quality Nurse Practitioner Education (NTF), 2012).
The AACN standards and guidelines of the Masters NP program envisions that upon completion, some if not all goals are achieved. One of which is to enable the nursing students to learn as well as gain the ability to apply their skills. It emphasizes on adherence to ethical conduct of these students when dealing with the patients and exercise proper guidelines to ensure satisfactory care. Students should demonstrate adequate communication of their decisions by backing this up with credible proof while at the same time highlighting the relevance of the problem (American Nurses Association, 2004). Collaboration with other experts is instrumental in coming up with not only solutions but also policy changes and implementations so as to simplify decision making in the future on similar situations. As a final point, be constantly involved in the betterment of nursing practice through in depth research.
The AACN has over the years been involved in coming up with standards of measure of competency levels in the nursing fraternity and have done this through a regulatory overview panel and an external verifying method (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2002). This body is involved in the grooming of thousands of nurses at various levels of education all over the country to be the best care givers to patients suffering from a wide variety of ailments in various medical facilities. Therefore, they play an important role in creating the very minimum standards and act as regulators for the NP programs and their curriculum.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2002). Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Competencies in Specialty Areas: Adult, Family, Gerontological, Pediatric, and Women’s Health. Web.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2011). The Essentials of Master’s Education in Nursing. Web.
American Nurses Association. (2004). Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice. Washington, DC: Author.
National Task Force on Quality Nurse Practitioner Education (NTF). 2012. Criteria for Evaluation of Nurse Practitioner Programs. Washington, DC: NONPF.