Planning a bright future for nurses and the profession

For nearly 130 years, the American Nurses Association has proudly and enthusiastically championed nurses and shaped the nursing profession and nursing practice. Our foun­ders—who practiced when the average life expectancy in the United States was about 47 years, fewer than 10% of homes had electricity, and widescale antibiotics were decades away—couldn’t have imagined how our profession would mature and evolve.

Today, nurses are the vital force, or as I like to say, the heartbeat of healthcare. We’re trusted above all to provide care wherever healthcare takes place—from our neighbors’ homes to specialized and complex healthcare systems. Our knowledge, skills, and insights propel high-quality and safe patient care that continually strives for the best outcomes, for all.

We’re also in a pivotal time of rapid change and challenge in our profession, in healthcare, and our society. Consequently, the American Nurses Association—representing the interests of the nation’s more than 5 million RNs—is po­sitioning our organization and our profession for success over the long horizon of the next 130 years.

Like our founders, we can’t know the future, but our vision—a healthy world through the power of nursing—will shine like the North Star, guiding us with confidence and conviction as the decades unfold.

As the only professional association that represents and serves all RNs, the American Nurses Association will continue to lean into The Power of Nurses™—the power of each of you—to influence and drive meaningful change. We understand intimately that our power, based in the ethics and morals of our profession, compels each of us to move obstacles, pivot as needed, and positively impact our patients, communities, and our country.

The association will continue to advocate tirelessly to move those obstacles for nurses like you, our communities, and the nursing profession, enabling us to better care for ourselves and those we serve.

As it has for more than 30 years, the American Nurses Credentialing Center will continue to advance the highest standards of nursing excellence—excellence that not only drives safer patient outcomes worldwide but also ensures the well-being of nurses.

The American Nurses Foundation—celebrating 70 years in 2025—will continue to inspire transformational change by mobilizing resources to deliver substantive solutions that nurses lead and patients feel.

Known collectively as the American Nurses Enterprise, the association, credentialing center, and foundation are stronger together. We leverage our ambitions and resources in different ways to serve nurses and the nursing profession and see both thrive, now and long into the future. Our rebrand also signals that the American Nurses Enterprise serves anyone who values healthcare excellence—nurses, healthcare stakeholders, and the public.

Along with this outward-facing change that enables the American Nurses Enterprise to reach further with deeper effects, we’re in the throes of Integrating Excellence: Imagining American Nurses Enterprise into 2040. This profoundly important planning initiative will ensure that the enterprise remains a leading organization, excelling in engagement that drives business growth and excellence in our business practices, work products, and programs.

Informed by Integrating Excellence, the American Nurses Enterprise this year also will develop a near-term strategic plan with ambitious strategies and actions to advance the organization and the nursing profession. This work will occur hand-in-hand with our constituent and state nurses associations and other stakeholders.

Our future, and the success and well-being of the nurses we champion relentlessly, depend on these efforts, and The Power of Nurses.

Jennifer Mensik Kennedy PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
President, American Nurses Association

American Nurse Journal. 2025; 20(2). Doi: 10.51256/ANJ022529