Organization AWHONN

Nursing Organization: AWHONN
The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). This organization founded in 1969 as the Nurses Association of American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In 1993, the association becomes a separate nonprofit organization called the association of Women’s Health and Neonatal Nurses.
AWHONN headquarter in Washington D.C, there are 24,000 healthcare members worldwide and it is representing more than 350,000 nurses in this specialty. AWHONN received two premier program awards from American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for innovation and excellence in Continuing Nursing Education (CNE).
AWONN use a scientific base to integrate into nursing practice. One of the researches that AWHONN puts into practice is “skin to skin” between the mother and newborn.
Skin to skin contact is an effective method of preventing heat loss in newborn, whether babies born full term or preterm. The evidence shows that newborn had skin to skin with mother immediately after birth for at least 60 minutes has better outcomes in stabilizing temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, glucose level, and high success rate of exclusive breastfeeding. This evidence based has been use as a guideline for Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative throughout the nation.
For the nursing theory, AWHONN is committed in supporting and providing care for women and their families before, during and after childbirth. They also provide education, resources, and safety environment to the patients and families. Moreover, nurses provide patients care with compassionate and effective communications to ensure the good health of the mother and baby. Nurses play a major role in nursing research. They are involved in clinical and scientific research by working directly with research subjects, observing and collecting data from patients. Because nurses focus on patients’ well-being; therefore, they contribute their knowledge and skills to make research becomes successful in healthcare. As the healthcare demand for high quality care, nurse’s role is focusing on patients’ safety, technology and interdisciplinary collaboration in the healthcare system.
To meet these requirements, nurses’ role is to extend their level of education and training. They also have opportunities to learn and apply new technology such as computer charting, fetal monitoring, and ultrasound to their workplace. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), nurses with BSN have more abilities in critical thinking, better skills in collaboration with the teamwork to create a quality and safety environment for the patients.
In addition, technology brings a lot of benefits to nursing. It provides high qualities of care by given consistent and accurate results. It also helps nurses completing tasks quickly and easily.