Self-examination: Giving, membership, and worth

Article Outline

 

The plight of support of professional organizations is a contradiction between idealism and realism. Over the past decade, professional organizations have suffered a decline in member support. Although many have speculated about the meaning of this change among scientists, engineers, nurses, and other disciplines, relatively little seems to have been done to reverse what may be a negative trend in attitudes toward professional responsibilities, organizational membership, and giving in professional organizations.

A primary characteristic of professionals is that they use knowledge to guide their decisions and actions and are sensitive to the impact of these actions on the individual and on society as a whole. Their missions are similar in all careers. All professionals desire to better society and to promote their discipline and their organization. The nurse making a decision about the care of a patient or the engineer making a decision about safety issues in a municipal design project must use the best available information. Scientists, engineers, health-care professionals and others have a responsibility to continue to grow and to use the most current and appropriate information in making their decisions. Discipline-based scientific, business, and professional societies and associations perform a service in assisting their members in staying current and determining best practices. Moreover, societies and associations such as the Academy play a critical role in bringing together professionals from across the spectrum of science, health, engineering, and business—all very different, but complementary.

Frequently we hear colleagues asking what membership in a certain professional organization provides as a tangible asset. Does membership help me in résumé- and curriculum vitae (CV)-building; does membership provide me with printed materials; or does it assist me in getting awards, grants, tenure, promotion, etc.? It seems, however, that as professionals we should ask other questions: How can we enhance our discipline? How can we enhance the spectrum of disciplines, scientists, and businesses represented by the health professions? And, most importantly, how can we benefit society, practice altruism with a positive attitude, and demonstrate our commitment to core public purposes? In our opinion, membership in discipline-based and multidisciplinary organizations is a responsibility that professionals accept because it is one method of fulfilling a commitment to society—to serve the role of advancing the discipline and to provide an interface between our discipline and other disciplines and society.

More broadly, there are the identified perils to complacency. As scientists, leaders, and health professionals, nurses should not only recognize the obligation of being members of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), we should be willing to assume the many leadership roles required to make nursing serve society. Our challenge is not only to enjoy the benefits of membership in AAN but also to seek out ways of discharging professional responsibilities to our discipline and to society as we evolve systems in unexpected ways and try to avoid flights of self-regard and self-righteousness.

Members of AAN are among certain people who—because of the quality of their aspirational motivations, their inexplicable obsessions, their actions and growth orientation, their attention to long-term solutions, their unwavering belief in the rightness of their ideas—seem particularly well-suited to lead the process of defending new ideas and embracing new processes.

To be an Academy fellow confers professional and personal benefits. The attendant honor and privileges incur both humility and responsibility. Neither should be taken for granted. Use of the label “Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing” (FAAN) opens doors (publications, speaking engagements, appointments, committee assignments, promotions, credibility, and validity). Such honor and privileges also incur responsibilities to promote the institutions and organizations to which we are connected.

Then there is the humility aspect that is the price one pays for stature and legitimacy. Although to be humble requires that one have abilities, stature, and achievements, it involves freedom from conceit and requires recognition of one's limitations. A humble mind-set results from a realistic assessment of ourselves—our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and failures. Humility is manifested when we sincerely place the interests of others above our own. It is a way to assist us in facing up to the challenges of selfishness and competition.

Thus, besides affiliation, fellowship in AAN recognizes other obligations. Dues-paying and giving are other common bonds that unite us. By recognizing the contributions of others and how others contribute to the quality of our lives, it improves our relationships with others and encourages us to work hard, be useful, and contribute financially to causes in which we believe.

Operational expenses of AAN are supported by dues, annual meeting fees, and indirect costs from grants and awards. Thus, paying dues is obligatory to presenting a joyous opportunity to act on our values and to wear our privilege well. The Annual Fund giving is not used to support operational expenses.

“Giving” is a mechanism that provides a unifying theme for nursing, wherever and however it is practiced and taught. It says that, in giving to others, we are taking ownership and are giving to ourselves. Giving also means to have reverence for oneself, to have knowledge of yourself, to know what you have to give and what you expect so that you can keep on giving. It means you expose who you are as an individual, your authenticity and believability. And, finally, authenticity is always an act of self-disclosure. For instance, if a gift is truly a product of our passion, then it invariably will make us vulnerable. Still, our job as leaders is to believe strongly enough in the message we send by giving, that we transcend that vulnerability.

The AAN's modus operandi is outwork others: to learn, strategize about how we use knowledge, and to work hard and aid our members to advance to positions of power and worth, with shared leadership in teaching and learning, science, service and regulatory, political, environmental, economic, and social concerns and orientations.

Nonparticipation and nonsupport is out-of-style thinking. They perpetuate attitudes in the larger world that devalue and limit AAN. Such thinking diminishes the angle of the discipline's line of vision and commitment to the core public purpose to maximize society's well-being.

Generous support of AAN communicates habits of using money for causes we believe in and reflects pride as well as helps define AAN’s contributions to interdisciplinary and disciplinary dialogue that influences emergent trends in education, research, health services, and public policy. For instance, Annual Fund dollars are used to support such initiatives as:


•Raise the Voice! Campaign that identifies and draws national attention to nurse edge-runners whose innovations have influenced healthcare policy and practice


•Workforce Commission that uses its high profile to target technologies that return nurses to the bedside and to target issues surrounding nursing education and the nursing faculty shortage


•AAN/ANF Institute of Medicine Scholars Program (and publications) that allows nurse leaders to immerse themselves in the life and programs of the institute and contribute ideas, expert knowledge and experience


•AAN's Expert Panels that meet and discuss timely issues, best practices and policies


•National Quality Forum (NQF) that allows AAN to add the nursing perspective and a strong voice for developing and implementing a national strategy for health care quality, measurement, and improving health outcomes


•AAN Nurse Scholar in Residence Program


•AARP/American Academy of Nursing Joint Fellowship program that provides a year-long leadership opportunity in health policy at the AARP Public Policy Institute.


•Publications of National Conference Proceedings and Action Plans



In 2007, the total number of Academy Fellows on record was 1387. The composition of fellows consists of Charter Fellows, Fellows, Emeritus Fellows and International and Honorary Fellows.

Also in 2007, we passed the $100,000 goal for the Annual Development Fund Campaign even as < 50% of all FAANs contribute to the Annual Fund Campaign and 91 FAANs have allowed their AAN membership to lapse. AAN Bylaws indicate that failure to pay dues results in not being able to identify oneself as FAAN. This loss could be catastrophic since most recognized nurse leaders are affiliated with major institutions, organizations, and services. Furthermore, FAAN support is a bellwether to communicate with outside givers the importance of their investing in AAN. The most fundamental truth is that the work of AAN and our aspirations for serving the public through influence and advancing health policy and practice is never-ending. Moreover, an organization that is financed by a broad base of individuals is in a strong position to advocate for the structural changes society needs to make in issues concerning health and healthcare.

It could be that some of us can be accused of carelessness, identified as the failure to think things through. We ask that every FAAN please “give back” to AAN by your membership and your support of the Annual Fund. Such persistence embraces the concept that habits of supporting causes we believe in is about results that reflect member pride and help define the public debate that highlights AAN's contributions to interdisciplinary and disciplinary dialogue. Such support also influences emergent trends in teaching, learning, research, health services, and public policy. These activities are markers of ranking and reputation in American Nursing. Ultimately, however, maintaining membership in AAN and contributing to the Annual Fund present a joyous opportunity to act on our values and to wear our privilege well. As soon as we abandon the essential tenets that have imbued our history, we abandon the very foundations of our existence.

Giving is an important leadership responsibility. Giving is not only an obligation but also an aspiration. Giving demonstrates a commitment to service and philanthropy that will serve as a legacy over a lifetime. Further, we must recognize that public opinion is the medium in which we operate. All action is, therefore, public action. What we say about ourselves does not have as much effect as what we are seen doing. We persuade others by our actions.