What is AONE and what does it do?

AONE is a community of nurse leaders whose common goal is to improve patient care within their environment and work as catalysts for innovation and change. It was founded in 1967 and is a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association. The mission of AONE is to represent nursing leaders who will improve health care in the long run.

It is the nation's leading professional organization for nurses in executive practice, with nearly 4,000 members. It is both a national and an international organization.

What opportunities are available for nurse leaders?

I'm amazed at the number of opportunities for nurse leaders. There are phenomenal possibilities. Executive and management jobs are open in acute care, ambulatory, long-term care and other outpatient settings.

AONE has many resources for nurse leaders. Our core business is to provide educational leadership, mentoring and career development and career opportunities, as well as to provide information. There is a public policy advocacy program and a research program.

We have a monthly newsletter and a weekly e-mail update. We supply information about nursing and health care news pertinent to nursing leaders including job openings. It's a good resource.

What is the AONE focus regarding the health care shortage?

We believe that nursing is the foundation for health care organizations in this country. The shortages we are now experiencing will only get more severe in the coming years.

AONE is active "on the Hill" and has a strong federal advocacy program.

The Nurse Reinvestment Act was just signed by President Bush. It looks to curb the growing shortage of registered nurses in hospitals and health systems and sees the problem as something that cannot be solved by the health care community alone.

We also work on the private level with such organizations as Johnson & Johnson and its recent advertising to promote nursing.

What will be the AONE focus for research and development within nursing?

We want to do research that demonstrates an impact on patient outcomes and nursing practice. One area we're looking at this year is delivery systems. We all know that health care is community-based and that no single delivery system works for the entire country. Many innovative designs have been implemented and we can share these new concepts with nurse leaders in the field. AONE can promote and list what's been done already so the nurse leader is not continually trying to reinvent the wheel.

The critical shortage we are seeing today in nursing will not improve in years to come. Baby boomers are getting older and the nursing workforce is growing older, faster than any workforce in the country.

Where do you get your funding?

We work in partnership with organizations that have similar goals to ours. We do our research through the AONE Institute for Patient Care Research and Education with offices in Washington, D.C.

Many organizations desire certain types of research and we partner with them to accomplish their goals. We worked with Peter Buerhaus [professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University] on some of his work on patient outcomes, as well as the recent study NURSEWEEK completed.

How have you used AONE in your practice?

AONE has been a tremendous asset in my work. It opened my eyes to opportunities available and has made it possible to share ideas and innovations with other nursing leaders. For example, I recently was invited to a conference on technology in nursing. AONE made this possible and allowed me to share our Montana experiences using telemedicine, televideo and technology we tested with NASA. The NASA work utilized the tremendous distances between our health care facilities.

AONE provides linkage all over the world so that what we are doing can be shared nationally and internationally.

It is exciting for me personally and for Montana health care.