New long-term care nursing group to debut in 2016

Leaders of an association for nurse assessment coordinators have announced they will be rolling out a new organization for long-term care directors of nursing in 2016. A “soft” opening will occur in March, with a full rollout expected to occur at a conference in September, they told McKnight’s.

The effort is being led by leaders of the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination (AANAC), which in July announced that it had acquired the assets of the American Association of Long-Term Care Nursing (AALTCN).

“It makes sense. We have the staff and the infrastructure,” said AANAC President and CEO Diane Carter, RN, MSN, RAC-CT, C-NE, FAAN. “We have 15,000 members in AANAC and about half of them are directors of nursing.”

Carter said that AANAC also recently attempted to acquire the National Association of Directors of Nursing in Long Term Care (NADONA) but the offer was rebuffed. Attempts to obtain comment from NADONA’s executive director on Friday were unsuccessful.

Carter said that AANAC would continue to exist as it is now, focusing on serving MDS coordinators. New will be the American Association of Directors of Nursing Services (AADNS), which will comprise nurses employed in skilled care facilities.

Both groups will exist under an umbrella organization called the American Association of Post-Acute Nursing, which will not be as commonly referenced as its two constituent groups, Carter explained. There will be one governing board and one CEO, with Carter the likely leading candidate for the top post.

She said that meetings with vice presidents of clinical nursing around the country have revealed strong interest in the new organization.

When AANAC and AALTCN announced their merger in July, leaders said the main goals of the bigger organization were to create a director of nursing certification program and to strengthen the presence of the nursing profession in Washington.

In late September, NADONA officials announced their move to new headquarters in a nearby suburb of Cincinnati “to help accommodate more staff and members.”