Below you’ll find links to several organizations that provide educational and professional resources and support for a wide-range of healthcare career paths.

HEALTHCARE CAREER INFORMATION

Discover Nursing - www.discovernursing.com
This site contains all the information you need to start or continue your nursing career including nursing programs, scholarships and schools.

Explore Healthcare Careers - www.explorehealthcareers.org
Explore Healthcare careers is a multi-disciplinary, interactive health careers website designed to explain the array of health professions and provide easy access to students seeking information about health careers. This website is a joint initiative involving national foundations, professional associations, health career advisors, educational institutions, and college students.

COLLEGIATE ORGANIZATIONS

American Association of Colleges of Nursing - www.aacn.org
AACN is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, representing the interests of more than 500,000 nurses who are responsible for caring for acutely and critically ill patients. Critical care nurses work in a wide variety of settings, filling many roles including bedside clinicians, nurse educators, nurse researchers, nurse managers, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners.

National Student Nurses Association - www.nsna.org
Founded in 1952, NSNA is a nonprofit organization for students enrolled in associate, baccalaureate, diploma, and generic graduate nursing programs. NSNA is dedicated to fostering the professional development of nursing students. The organization has over 53,000 members in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing - www.nursingsociety.org
The mission of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International is to support the learning, knowledge and professional development of nurses committed to making a difference in health worldwide.  Membership is by invitation to baccalaureate and graduate nursing students who demonstrate excellence in scholarship and to nurse leaders exhibiting exceptional achievements in nursing. There are more than 405,000 worldwide members in 86 countries.

MINORITY NURSING

National Black Nurses Association - www.nbna.org
The National Black Nurses Association is a non-profit organization representing 150,000 African-American registered nurses, licensed vocational/practical nurses, nursing students and retired nurses from the USA, Eastern Caribbean and Africa. The NBNA mission is “to provide a forum for collective action by African American nurses to investigate, define and determine what the health care needs of African-Americans are and to implement change to make available to African-Americans and other minorities, health care that is commensurate with the larger society.”

American Assembly for Men in Nursing - www.aamn.org
The purpose of AAMN is to provide a framework for nurses, as a group, to meet, to discuss and influence factors which impact men as nurses.
National Association of Hispanic Nurses

National Association of Hispanic Nurses - www.thehispanicnurses.org
(NAHN™) was founded in 1975 by Ildaura Murillo-Rohde, PhD, RN, ND, FAAN.  Organizational goals include providing a forum for nurses to analyze and evaluate the health care needs of the Hispanic community, identify barriers of delivery, develop models of delivery and disseminate research findings and policy perspectives.

SPECIALTY NURSING

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners - www.aanp.org
AANP formed in 1985 to provide NPs with a unified way to network and advocate for NP issues and was the first national organization created for nurse practitioners of all specialties.   As the largest and only full-service national professional membership organization for NPs of all specialties, AANP represents the interests of the more than 135,000 NPs currently practicing in the U. S. and continually advocates at local, state, and federal levels for the recognition of NPs as providers of high-quality, cost-effective, and personalized healthcare.

Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses - www.amsn.org
The Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) is the only national professional nursing specialty organization dedicated to adult health/medical-surgical nurses. The goal is to enhance the knowledge, skills and professionalism of medical-surgical nurses in all practice settings.

American Association of Neuroscience Nurses - www.aann.org
Founded in 1968, the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, an organization of more than 4,000 members worldwide, is committed to working for the highest standard of care for neuroscience patients by advancing the science and practice of neuroscience nursing. AANN accomplishes this through continuing education, information dissemination, standard setting, and advocacy on behalf of neuroscience patients, families, and nurses.

American Association of Critical Care Nurses - www.aacn.org
AACN is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, representing the interests of more than 500,000 nurses charged with the responsibility of caring for acutely and critically ill patients. The association is dedicated to providing our members with the knowledge and resources necessary to provide optimal care to critically ill patients.

American Organization of Nurse Executives - www.aone.org
Founded in 1967, the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association, is a national organization of over 7,000 nurse leaders who design, facilitate and manage care.

The organization provides leadership, professional development, advocacy and research in order to advance nursing practice and patient care, promote nursing leadership excellence and shape health care public policy.

Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses - www.aorn.org
The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) is the national association committed to improving patient safety in the surgical setting. AORN is the premier resource for perioperative nurses, advancing the profession and the professional with valuable guidance as well as networking and resource-sharing opportunities.

American Association of Nurse Anesthetists - www.aana.com
Founded in 1931, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) is the professional association representing more than 40,000 Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and student nurse anesthetists.  CRNAs are advanced practice nurses who are the hands-on providers of approximately 32 million anesthetics given in the United States each year.  They administer every type of anesthetic, work in every type of practice setting, and provide care for every type of surgery or procedure, from open heart to cataract to pain management.

American Psychiatric Nurses Association - www.apna.org
APNA has grown to be the largest professional membership organization committed to the specialty practice of psychiatric-mental health (PMH) nursing and wellness promotion, prevention of mental health problems and the care and treatment of persons with psychiatric disorders. APNA is the only PMH nursing organization whose membership is inclusive of all PMH registered nurses (RN) including associate degree (ADN), baccalaureate (BSN), and advanced practice (APN) comprised of clinical nurse specialists (CNS) and psychiatric nurse practitioners).

National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses - www.orthonurse.org
Formed in 1980, NAON was designed to promote the highest standards of nursing practice by educating its practitioners, promoting research, and encouraging effective communication between orthopaedic nurses and other groups with similar interests. NAON Membership consists of more than 6,000 RNs, LPNs, LVNs, student nurses, and associate members from across the country and around the world who share an interest in musculoskeletal healthcare.

Oncology Nursing Society - www.ons.org
The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) is a professional organization of over 37,000 registered nurses and other healthcare providers dedicated to excellence in patient care, education, research, and administration in oncology nursing.

ALLIED HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity - www.ahdionline.org
The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) was established in 1978 as part of an effort to achieve recognition for the medical transcription profession affects the quality of health care. When the U.S. Department of Labor granted medical transcriptionists their own job classification in 1999, it was an important milestone to getting the work recognized as much more than clerical.

American Association of Occupational Therapy Association - www.aota.org
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) is the national professional association established in 1917 to represent the interests and concerns of occupational therapy practitioners and students of occupational therapy and to improve the quality of occupational therapy services.

American Physical Therapy Association - www.apta.org
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is a national professional organization representing more than 74,000 members. Its goal is to foster advancements in physical therapy practice, research, and education.

American Society of Radiologic Technology - www.asrt.org
The American Society of Radiologic Technologists is the world's largest and oldest membership association for medical imaging technologists and radiation therapists. Founded in 1920, the ASRT had more than 130,000 members by 2008.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association - www.asha.org
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 140,000 members and affiliates who are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally.