AACN Policy on In-Person Events 2020
Posted almost 5 years ago by Kimberly Simpson
AACN is closely monitoring the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and adjusting our organizational operations to continue keeping the safety of our members, volunteers and staff our top priority.
Recently, AACN made the decision not to hold face-to-face national board or volunteer group meetings for the remainder of the calendar year. In addition, we are now asking chapters not to hold in-person meetings for the duration of 2020. This recommendation is anchored in the same principles that guided us in canceling our upcoming in-person national meetings as well as NTI 2020. Those principles are as follows:
- The health and safety of our nurses, the patients they care for and our staff is our north star. Acute and critical care nurses are a vital pillar of the infrastructure of America's healthcare system - particularly where the most high-risk, critically ill and resource-dependent patients receive care. At a time when these invaluable resources may be needed in unprecedented numbers, it is not right to possibly put them at risk.
- The ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses provides guidance in decision-making on a number of fronts, but the following excerpt from Provision 5 of the Code seems particularly germane. "Nurses should model the same health maintenance and health promotion measures that they teach and research, obtain health care when needed, and avoid taking unnecessary risks to health or safety in the course of their professional and personal activities."
This recommendation is also based on safety, legal and contractual considerations chapters would need to implement to hold an event.