[cougarnurse]

Saw this in the Advance for Nurses, and thought I should post it:

LTC Nursing Association Established

The American Association for Long Term Care Nursing (AALTCN) has recently been launched for the purpose of advancing excellence in the specialty of long-term care nursing by:
• Uniting various categories of long-term care nursing staff in common goals and needs.
• Providing relevant educational resources that bridge current best practices with bedside practice.
• Bringing visibility and respect to long-term care nursing caregivers.
• Advocating for long-term care nursing caregivers.
• Supporting and promoting excellence in care for consumers of long-term care.
AALTCN’s leadership team includes Charlotte Eliopoulos, Executive Director, and Ron Romano, Director of Professional Services. Both of these professionals have extensive experience in long-term care.
“The intent is not to replicate or compete with the associations that represent individual categories of long-term care nursing employees,” says Eliopoulos, “but rather, to provide unique educational resources, advocacy and a voice for the specialty of long term care nursing.”
Instead of individual memberships, the nursing department will join AALTCN for one single membership fee.
In addition to offering a forum in which all levels of nursing staff can participate in an association, share similar goals for improved nursing care, a facility’s membership “will provide a cost-effective means for a facility to support staff membership in a professional association,” Romano said.
Details on other types of special memberships for individuals not employed by a facility and for business partners are available at the new association’s Web site: www.LTCNursing.org.
Additionally, AALTCN will offer educational resources for every level of staff, certificate programs to recognize knowledge in various aspects of geriatric and long term care nursing, conferences, train the trainer programs, a journal, and more.
As a nonprofit organization, AALTCN will seek donations for scholarships to assist staff in climbing the career ladder. It also will represent the voice of all levels of nursing staff on national projects, committees, etc.