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No matter how you slice nursing-by specialty, workplace, geography, gender, heritage, ethnicity or eclectic interest-there likely is a professional organization for you, a place where RNs can find support and cohesiveness in a highly fractured profession.

Organizations range from a few hundred members in highly specialized groups, such as the Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society, to 65,000 members in the all-encompassing American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society that promotes standards and scholarship, dwarfs all with 300,000 members in 90 countries.

Associations are for "forward-thinking" RNs interested in staying on top of the profession, said Ann Motayar, director of the career services center at Kent State University in Ohio. "It's a critical part of maintaining and developing professional status," she said.

Practice-based organizations can be as specific as the Developmental Disabilities Nurses Association, for those who work with the developmentally disabled. In conjunction with the National League for Nursing, it confers the CDDN credential: certified developmental disabilities nurse.

By workplace, there is the American Association of Office Nurses, the Association of Camp Nurses, the National Association of School Nurses and a refinement of that, the National Association of School Nurses for the Deaf.

Geographically, RNs support each other in city- and county-based organizations such as the Greater Cleveland Nurses Association and the King County (Wash.) Nurses Association. For men, there is the American Assembly for Men in Nursing.

By heritage and ethnicity, consider the National Black Nurses Association, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada.

For those who don't get enough of nursing on the job, there's even an American Association for the History of Nursing. Executive Secretary Janet Fickeissen, MSN, RN, describes it as composed of RNs, academicians, historians, librarians and collectors who share a passion for nursing history.

Some organizations, for instance the 325-member Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society, offer members research grants and scholarships for academic study and continuing education. Others make available group insurance rates and discounts on career-related purchases such as uniforms and supplies. But typically what draws RNs to organizations are the intangibles: information, education, camaraderie and credibility.

The Association of Nurses in AIDS Care fairly represents what nursing professional organizations do, why they are born and the extent to which they grow.

Twelve RNs from around the country got together in 1987 and created ANAC, after realizing they were doing similar work and had similar concerns. Today, it has 2,100 members united by what association general counsel Katherine Wilson, JD, calls "a resounding need for support-mental, emotional and physical-considering the risks in caring for HIV-positive patients and the taboo of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Nurses do so much of the patient care, so much of the one-on-one," Wilson said.

ANAC provides members with a network of RNs, physicians, social workers, pharmacists and other health care professionals who deal with AIDS. It is at the forefront of issues and developments with a bimonthly newsletter, international journal and Web site. It also has a distinguished lecturer program for community organizations as well as its chapters.

To further careers, ANAC produces its own continuing education courses that apply toward licensure renewal requirements. Education, verified by testing, also leads to the specialty credential ACRN: AIDS certified registered nurse, said Adele Webb, Ph.D., RN, interim executive director. "When you go to look for a position, that's a credential they look for."

Still another benefit of nursing professional organizations is that they allow RNs to speak out on professionwide issues with authority that they would not enjoy as individuals.

"We've positioned ourselves as the voice of critical care nurses in the legislative arena," developing public policy on issues such as staffing requirements and the nursing shortage, said Kris Pleimann, marketing and communications specialist for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

What began in 1969 as an organization for cardiovascular nurses has grown to 65,000 members-the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, Pleimann said. "Critical care isn't just in the hospital anymore," she said, mentioning patients who are acutely ill at home and in telemetry and step-down units. "We're really for anyone who takes care of patients who are critically and acutely ill."

AACN also confers the specialty credential CCNS, certified critical nurse specialist, which carries continuing education requirements and renewal at three-year intervals.

"Our educational resources are probably our biggest selling point," Pleimann said. "We offer an annual conference called the National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition, which is attended annually by anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 nurses." It features continuing education programs as well as an exposition of technology, techniques and merchandise for critical care nurses, she said.

Equally important, though, is that the conference is "a time for [nurses] to reconnect with members of their profession, to really be renewed," Pleimann said. "There's a lot of networking, a lot of feel-good programs. They are just re-energized at the conference."

Joining a professional organization, in nursing or any other field, speaks volumes about commitment to a profession, Pleimann said. "It shows a sense of pride. A lot of people go through life and kind of say, 'This is just a job.' But by belonging to an association it takes it a step further. It says, 'I'm really interested in networking and continuing to challenge myself and grow educationally.' By belonging to an organization, you're sort of saying, 'I'm part of this group and I'm proud of it.' "