The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the national voice for academic nursing. AACN works to establish quality standards for nursing education; assists schools in implementing those standards; influences the nursing profession to improve health care; and promotes public support for professional nursing education, research, and practice. It was established in 1969, and represents more than 875 member schools of nursing at public and private universities nationwide.
To view AACN's latest news, visit: https://www.aacnnursing.org/news-data.
Members-at-Large:
President and Chief Executive Officer (ex officio): Deborah E. Trautman
The Graduate Nursing Student Academy (GNSA) is a national division of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing that serves master's, doctoral, and post graduate nursing students. The GNSA functions as the national voice for graduate nursing students and promotes leadership, professional development, scholarly advancement, and advocacy engagement across graduate level programs in the United States.
The GNSA provides webinars, leadership development programs, networking opportunities, academic support resources, mentoring, and career development programming tailored for graduate level learners. The academyâÂÂs mission includes strengthening the graduate nursing pipeline and preparing students to assume leadership roles in clinical practice, academia, health systems management, and public policy.
A signature initiative of the academy is the GNSA Advocacy Leader Program. This program selects graduate nursing students nationally to participate in structured policy training and health advocacy engagement. Advocacy Leaders collaborate with AACNâÂÂs government affairs division, meet with federal stakeholders, promote awareness of nursing policy issues, and represent student perspectives within national policy discussions.
The GNSA also manages recognition programs, travel support for national conferences, student leadership awards, and professional development funding opportunities. Membership is free for all students enrolled in graduate nursing programs at AACN member institutions.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing offers a number of different scholarships to nursing students around the country for outstanding academic performance, students who aspire to leadership positions in academic nursing, and/or those who are committed to making a positive impact on the nation's health and health care. They have partnered with companies like Liaison, Uniform Advantage, and Hurst Review to provide thousands of dollars in scholarships each year to students that apply and meet the requirements. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, they have also started a scholarship program to help students that need financial support in order to complete their nursing programs and/or meet life expenses. Since the program was started in April 2020, they have disbursed a total of 158 awards.