West Houston Chapter of AACN Professional Organization Assessment - Research Paper Example

Lecturer: West Houston Chapter Of AACN The West Houston Chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses is basically working with the aim of promoting healthcare. They have come up with healthcare systems that are driven by not just the needs but desires of patients and communities, especially in areas where critical nursing care givers, for instance, nurses are depended upon to provide crucial contributions which are needed to impact the care quality. The association has core values and a philosophy that govern its operations. One of the core values they have is to ensure that there is proper coordination in matters health in Houston. Other than that, they value accountability, integrity, collaboration with other health organizations, enhance lifelong learning of the nursing practices and also providing leadership. They too have goals and a mission which aim at providing the best healthcare needs of families and all the matters that are critical to human health. They also help in shaping the health research agenda and disseminating valuable knowledge gathered to reach out to as many people as possible. Provision of technical support that aims at speeding up change and monitoring any situation that is likely to affect the health of the Houston people .They have also taken it upon themselves to monitor and assess the health trends around the community. The mission statement for West Houston Chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses is to ensure that all human beings attain the best quality health. The history of West Houston Chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses was begun a few year ago in the year 1969 with the aim of helping -by educating-nurses who work in new and yet to develop intensive care units. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses is believed to be one of the largest organization in matters nursing in the world. The very first ever intensive care units got established in mid 20th century in response to an urgent need for certain special areas in matters medical and health .This was aimed at providing the much needed complex care for patients who were critically unwell due to illnesses like polio and Alzheimer. The specialized care that was provided improved the patient’s survival rates dramatically. This saw many concerned authorities call for an additional medical units that were capable of caring for patients with more serious heart diseases. After the creation of these cardiac care units in 1960s, there was an urgent need for specialists in matters intensive care. By the year 1967,there were so many specialized nurses in the medical fraternity but unfortunately there was rampant unemployment among people trained in intensive care nursing .This led to nurses around the United States coming together to form a national organization which was to be responsible for disseminating information concerning coronary care .As time went by they kept on encouraging each other through several meetings that they organized and at some point, during one of their cardiac treatment and care symposium, they agreed to officially form a national nursing organization. AACN was officially begun in 1969 as an association for nurses with cardiovascular speciality .At that said time, the main purpose of the association was to educate the cardiovascular nurses who were intending to work in the newly developed cardiac units and intensive care units. Two years later, the association changed its name to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, this was aimed at bring all the nurses concerned with patients who were critically ill under the association. Since then, the AACN has continued to provided products and services to critically ill Americans. Other problems that led to the development of this association were, among others, the outbreak of deadly diseases like Alzheimer’s disease .Its prevention ,detection and interventions were necessary at that point in time. This led to international community being greatly concerned at they responded by convening a meeting in response to this diseases and even came up with mechanisms to bring to a stop this deaths. The main cause of Alzheimer had not been established and due to many other misunderstandings, very little had been established about the disease. In their meeting that I attended, the topics discussed in the meeting agenda and the discussion outcomes were very relevant to prevention and control of the Alzheimer diseases. The discussion outcome of the topics discussed on the meeting agenda were quite on point, particularly on the matter concerning AD. They for instance discussed how keeping the mind active –enhancing the brain cells –help in improving their (brain cells ) to improve their connection as one ages .They also suggested that it helps in delaying onset of AD .Some of the examples they gave include reading ,going to museums ,learning second or third languages ,filling crossword puzzles ,playing games like chess, music instruments .It was also recommended that people should engage more in social activities to help protect them against dementia. Another thing that was discussed concerned encouraging people to meditate ,relax and praying more to help reduce stress which normally increases the activities of free radicals in human bodies .They also discussed how one can detect someone who suffers from the AD. Some of the symptoms that emerged included loss of memory difficulty in carrying out familiar tasks ,language problems ,time and place disorientation ,decreased poor judgement, misplacing things ,mood swings and lack or loss of initiative. My personal perception on whether or not the topics are relevant to what is going on in nursing now is that the topics are very relevant to what is going on in the nursing field today. They, for instance, discussed keeping the mind active as a way of keeping away the AD. This is indeed very relevant because the methods used are applicable everywhere in the world in as far as treating or preventing AD. One more topic that was discussed and is relevant to what is going on in the world of nursing is social activities that people should engage in more to avoid dementia-a very common disease in many places around the world. One more topic that was discussed was strategies aimed at reducing chances of one being predisposed to conditions like stress which partly lead to AD.   The topics on the agenda are a concern for the group’s members and this can be seen in how they were actively participating and contributing. The members who attended seemed to be very passionate about providing solutions to tackle the pandemic of AD. Various meetings and conferences on the disease were held in various places curb the menace. References   http://www.aacn.org/ Read More