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3 Reasons to Join ISAPN, the Best APRN Organization in Illinois

Posted almost 2 years ago

As an APRN, your work is different from practitioners around you. You carry a different level of responsibility from RNs but may not have full practice authority in your position like a physician. We get it, and we got you.

Whether you’re a certified nurse-midwife (CNM), certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), clinical nurse specialist (CNS), or certified nurse practitioner (CNP), ISAPN is the best statewide professional organization for you!

  

Join a Welcoming Illinois APRN Membership Community

Creating community with other APRN professionals comes easily when you’re a member of ISAPN. Members can connect with each other in formal and informal settings to discuss best practices, ask for advice, or learn new approaches that improve their daily lives and patient care.

“It’s so important to be able to see what everyone else in the state is talking about. Or maybe they find out that someone is doing something in a different way than they are, and it works better or is better for patients,” says Raechel Ferry-Rooney, DNP APRN-ANP, President of ISAPN. “ISAPN facilitates all of those important conversations.”

This kind of informal mentorship is especially useful for new APRNs.

“Whether they’re a student or brand new in practice and have questions or need support—it’s really critical to be able to have someone with more experience to be able to touch base with when you’re new,” says Ferry-Rooney.

Connecting with other APRNs is a great opportunity for networking as well.

“Maybe there’s a new position opening up that someone finds out about when they’re at a dinner or at an event. It sounds exciting to them and they’re looking for something different. Those kinds of connections can be priceless,” she says.

 

Earn Relevant CE Credits with the Premier Illinois APRN Organization

ISAPN provides continuing education courses tailored to APRNs—whether they’re new or established in practice. The annual Midwest Conference in the fall offers courses and credits that meet the unique needs of certified nurse-midwives (CNM), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA), clinical nurse specialists (CNS), and certified nurse practitioners (CNP).

ISAPN also hosts pharmacology updates in two locations in the state in the spring and summer to make it easier for APRNs throughout the state to attend.

“Whatever a member needs, we likely have an opportunity for them to interact with—whether it’s virtual or whether it’s in person,” says Ferry-Rooney.

ISAPN’s continuing education events provide meaningful opportunities for networking, mentorship, and community as well.

 

Support the Illinois APRN Organization Speaking to Legislators

Along with providing community and continuing education courses, this APRN organization represents the interests of all Illinois APRNs—certified nurse-midwives (CNM), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA), clinical nurse specialists (CNS), and certified nurse practitioners (CNP)—in places where decisions are made.

“We represent the interests of all the APRNs in Illinois to anyone who really needs to know, whether that’s legislators or licensing bodies, insurers, or hospital systems. Anywhere APRN interests need to be represented, we’re there to do that,” says Ferry-Rooney.

ISAPN has worked to advance the profession—and to create title protection for APRNs—since the beginning.

Ferry-Rooney remembers the work they did with legislation to establish protections for the APRN profession.

“In 1997, when I graduated from Loyola with my master’s, the person who lived next door to me could decide they were going to call themselves a nurse practitioner and they could do it because there was no law saying they couldn’t.”

Anyone could call themselves a nurse-midwife, a nurse anesthetist, nurse specialist, or a nurse practitioner. And that was a problem—both for the professionals serving in these important roles and for patients receiving care.

“Early on, I was involved just to let Springfield know we existed, to fight for our ability to even call ourselves a nurse practitioner or a nurse midwife or any of the other specialties, because we weren’t recognized.”

ISAPN hasn’t stopped advancing the best interests of APRNs in Illinois. After winning full practice authority for APRNs, ISAPN continued to work for improvements in the legislation.

“We can make changes that are small, minutia changes, or really large changes. There was a small, minutia change that we made this year, through Springfield, which was to create a way for APRNs to seek full practice authority even if their physician they’re working with doesn’t want to sign the required attestion document.

“Hopefully, that’s a steppingstone to saying ‘This doesn’t make any sense. No physician’s name should even apply to my job.’ It’s baby steps, and it’s at the state level that we can make those changes.”

Even though there are other organizations working to advance the profession at the national level, ISAPN is the only APRN organization focused on making change in Illinois.

“We’re the only ones that can change their practice—their day-to-day practice—in the state. No one else can do that,” she says. 

 

Become an ISAPN Member

ISAPN memberships are easy and affordable—with either annual or monthly payments available. For less than a few coffees each month, you can help support your practice and the health of your patients.

“We want everyone—all APRNs—to have a voice. The way to have a voice is to be a member and then interact with the group. It’s really critical that we hear all the voices of APRNs, and membership is the best way to do that.”

 

Join today!