gathering of nurses group

Improving Healthcare for All Alaskans

Improving Healthcare for All Alaskans

About AaNA

Founded in 1953, the Alaska Nurses Association is a professional association and labor union working to advance and support the profession of nursing. We also aim to improve healthcare for all Alaskans. From Ketchikan to Denali to King Salmon, we represent all types of nurses across the state of Alaska.


We are a member-driven, member-led, and member-focused. AaNA members strive to win better working conditions, advance professional standards, improve patient safety, and provide quality care for our patients and our communities. Together, we leverage our collective voice to advocate for nurses and patients throughout Alaska.

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AaNA is the unified voice of nurses in the Last Frontier.

Our Core Values

Advocacy. Integrity. Professionalism. Representation. Empowerment.


The AaNA Mission

The mission of the Alaska Nurses Association is to provide a voice for and to represent nurses across the entire state. We work to advance and support the nursing profession and patient care through collective bargaining, education, advocacy, and influence on healthcare policy.


Our Vision

We envision a future with optimal working conditions and high professional standards for all nursing professionals in Alaska. Members have access to a professional organization that empowers them to advocate for patient safety and quality care while becoming leaders in their communities and the healthcare system.

historic image of nurses
historic image of nurses in parade

Our Story

It all started in 1950 when nurses began laying the foundation for a unified professional nursing organization in Alaska. After incorporating with the Territory of Alaska in 1953, the Alaska Nurses Association was born. Since before statehood, AaNA led the way for nurses in the Last Frontier. Throughout the years, we shaped the practice of nursing. Our initiatives promote professional development and education, set high standards for safe and accessible care, and connect our members. AaNA champions issues that affect nurses and patients.

Throughout our history, we’ve celebrated a number of milestones and achievements – from successfully lobbying for Alaska’s mandatory nursing licensure law in 1953 to our first organizing victories and rapid membership growth during the 1990s and 2000s.

Our first bargaining unit was established in 1994 when nurses at Providence Alaska Medical Center voted to form a union with AaNA. Years of organizing efforts culminated in 1999 with a powerful 24-day strike that won the nurses their first contract. This victory signaled the strength of our collective voice and organization.

Meanwhile, nurses at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna organized, forming AaNA’s second bargaining unit in 1997. The Central Peninsula Hospital nurses won their first contract just three days after the Providence nurses’ victory. In 2001, nurses at Ketchikan General Hospital unionized, marking the third bargaining unit to join AaNA.

Our recent big wins in the state capitol came in 2010 when the No Mandatory Overtime Law was enacted following a several-year campaign. In 2018 came the passage of HB 312, which aims to address workplace violence against healthcare workers. In between those years, we affiliated with the AFT in 2015, joining with healthcare workers across the nation to fight for quality care, safe staffing, and high professional standards. As our history develops we encourage you to be a part of it.

AaNA nurses

Get to Know Us

Our team of leaders and staff are here to help.

Bylaws, General Assembly
and Resolutions

Our bylaws, General Assembly, and resolutions make up the framework of our member-driven organization.

Our Bylaws

As a member-run association, we collectively form our bylaws to define our organization’s purpose, structure, and governance.

In our bylaws, you will find information about our committees and task forces, membership meetings, elections, and our rights and responsibilities as members and leaders.

The Alaska Nurses Association General Assembly

Every year, our community comes together at our General Assembly. The General Assembly is open to all AaNA members and is the highest governing and voting body of our association. We meet each October to report on our progress over the past year. Through this process, we plan for the following year.

The General Assembly’s goal is to determine policy, approve resolutions and set our direction for the coming year. We also report on what initiatives and accomplishments were conducted during the current year. We record these meetings so anyone who is a member can have access to our progress as an organization. 

Our Resolutions

During our General Assembly, we pass resolutions by our membership. Our resolutions are written policies and actions of the Alaska Nurses Association. Each resolution may express a formal position of the AaNA on a specific topic or direct the AaNA officers to take action on a particular issue. These concepts cover everything from the inauguration of a new program, to expressing annual priorities for the AaNA. Historically, we make all of our past resolutions open to the public.

Affiliations

At the Alaska Nurses Association, we love to partner with like-minded programs to elevate our collective power and voice. Over the years, we have teamed up with various local and national organizations to create a better healthcare environment for all Alaskans.

We also team up with other nursing associations that share our vision, as well as create fruitful coalitions and partnerships all aimed to pool resources, elevate voices, and create a greater power for nurses.

Our National and Local Affiliations

We are proud partners of several national and local organizations to bring the best of the nursing community together to solve our toughest challenges.

AFT NURSES AND HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

AFT was founded in 1916 and today represents 1.7 million members in more than 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. AFT’s membership includes teachers and school employees, higher education faculty and professional staff, public employees, early childhood educators, and nurses and other healthcare professionals.

AFT’s Nurses and Health Professionals division was created in 1978 and is now the second-largest nurses union in the AFL-CIO, representing more than 113,000 health professionals, including over 85,000 nurses, who practice in a variety of settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, home health agencies, clinics, and schools.

On April 8, 2015, AaNA agreed to affiliate with AFT. With the affiliation, AaNA’s union members joined AFT’s union of professionals working across the nation to fight for quality care, safe staffing levels, and high zprofessional standards. Our affiliation with AFT gives Alaska nurses a voice in the national policies that affect their work every day.

AFL-CIO

Created in 1955 by the merger of the AFL and the CIO, The AFL-CIO is a democratic, voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working people. The AFL-CIO works to ensure that all people who work receive the rewards of their work—decent paychecks and benefits, safe jobs, respect, and fair treatment.

The AFL-CIO works to make the voices of working people heard in the White House, on Capitol Hill, in state capitals across the country, and in corporate boardrooms. They provide an independent voice for working families and ways for working people to be actively engaged in politics and legislation. Also, AFL-CIO holds corporations accountable for their treatment of employees and ensure the voice of working people is heard in the financial system.

The AFL-CIO envisions a future in which work and all the people who work are valued, respected, and rewarded. While the AFL-CIO represents millions of working people who belong to unions and have the benefits of union membership, the labor federation embraces all people who share the common bond of work.

The Alaska AFL-CIO, established in 1943, is the state’s largest labor organization, representing 60,000 union members belonging to over 50 affiliated unions statewide.

AaNA is affiliated with the AFL-CIO on the national level through our national union, AFT. AaNA is also affiliated with the Alaska AFL-CIO and Anchorage Central Labor Council.

The Alaska Nurses Association Affiliate Member Organizations

We welcome all statewide and specialty nursing organizations who have a shared mission with AaNA to become an AaNA affiliate member organization. Collectively, we expand your resources, grow your membership and build power for nurses across the state.

ALASKA SCHOOL NURSES ASSOCIATION

The Alaska School Nurses Association (ASNA) is an affiliate member organization of AaNA. Established in 1982, ASNA works to optimize student health and academic success by supporting professional school nurses in Alaska. ASNA is the professional specialty nursing association for school nurses across the state.

Alaska Association of Nurse Anesthetists

ALASKA ASSOCIATION OF NURSE ANESTHETISTS

The Alaska Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AKANA) is an affiliate member organization of AaNA. AKANA is dedicating to promoting the CRNA profession and advancing the art and science of anesthesia. AKANA is the state organization representing over 100 CRNAs in Alaska.

Become an Affiliate

INTERESTED IN BECOMING AN AFFILIATE OF AaNA?

Alaskan nursing associations and organizations that share a mission and purpose harmonious with us are eligible to affiliate with AaNA. Through affiliation with AaNA, associations gain access to meeting space, phone and video conferencing, representation on AaNA’s committees, and access to lobbying services and representation in the state capitol.

Contact us to find out more about how affiliation with AaNA can assist your nursing organization.

Our Coalitions and Partnerships

We team up with other organizations to elevate a particular issue. Through these strategic partnerships, we hope to bring our aligned missions together over a common cause.

Alaskans Together for Medicaid

AaNA is a coalition member of Alaskans Together for Medicaid, a nonpartisan, statewide coalition made up of nurses, doctors, health care providers, Medicaid recipients, hospitals and community health centers, faith leaders, community leaders, and advocacy groups. The coalition’s mission is to preserve and improve Alaska’s Medicaid program. Alaskans Together for Medicaid is a unified voice to ensure that Medicaid continues its crucial role in delivering necessary health coverage to everyday Alaskans.