Ambassadors Best Practices — Membership

In March 2010 a new unit opened in our community hospital: special care unit (SCU) — a 19-bed progressive care unit. The new nurses hired came with a wide diversity of skill and experience.

Polling results revealed that none of the new hires were members of AACN. To encourage membership to AACN, membership packets (both national & local) were placed in the nurses' mailboxes and in November 2010 the "Be the Mystery Guest to a Dinner Meeting" program was implemented.

Once a new member joins the national AACN and/or the local chapter, their name is placed into the lottery for possible selection as a "mystery guest". The selected nurse attends the next education/dinner program as paid guest of Clinical Educator (AACN Ambassador).

My role was that of project implementation coordinator.

Three C's:

1. Calendar: Post the dates on calendar in advance of the creation of schedule.
2. Commitment: dedication by clinical educator to attend all meetings.
3. Communicate: balance of emails, face-to-face conversations, bulletin board postings to encourage involvement of staff nurses. 

To increase AACN membership of SCU nurses (by 10%) by December 31, 2011.

Data as of 5/25/2011: two new members (6% increase).

Promoting AACN membership has become our focus and our goal is to obtain 100% membership this year.

The managers include this goal in the staff evaluations and copies of the group membership discount are made available to all staff. I collect these and submit these personally.

A poster with the benefits of membership is displayed and AACN is a standing topic on the staff meeting agenda. A CCRN study group held early 2010.

1. Management involvement.
2. CE now required for license renewal.
3. CCRN study course offered Spring 2010 

• Percentage of staff who are members
• Percentage of certified staff (currently 4%)