Message from the Executive Director
This is a message for our valued Early Career Nurses. One of our younger colleagues recently shared than when trying to recruit nurses to join, she is often met with the response, “I just want to be a nurse”. And while America is a place of freedom of choices, nursing is a profession of high standards and great expectations. You have joined a profession which possesses a proud history of leadership, compassion, advocacy, and service. While your first priority will always be providing exceptional patient care, your responsibility as a professional nurse extends beyond the bedside. The future of nursing depends on nurses who are willing to stand together to improve the profession for themselves, their colleagues, and the patients they serve. That is a core function of the Florida Nurses Association (FNA).
Every day, nurses across Florida face significant challenges—persistent workforce shortages, unsafe staffing levels, increasing patient complexity, workplace violence, burnout, moral distress, threats to professional practice, and concerns about the quality and safety of care. These issues cannot be solved by individual nurses or individual employers alone. They require a strong, unified professional voice advocating before the Legislature, state agencies, healthcare organizations, regulatory bodies, and the public.
For more than a century, the Florida Nurses Association has been that voice.
FNA works every day to advance initiatives that strengthen nursing practice, improve workplace safety, promote nurse well-being, protect patients, support nursing education, and advocate for policies that help recruit and retain the nursing workforce. Whether advocating for violence prevention initiatives, improving nursing education standards, advancing professional practice, or speaking on behalf of nurses during legislative session, FNA is working to create a stronger profession and a healthier Florida.
The reality is that every nurse in Florida benefits from the work of the Association—even those who are not members. Improvements in nursing practice, workplace protections, professional recognition, educational standards, and healthcare policy extend to the entire profession. Yet those accomplishments are only possible because thousands of nurses choose to invest in their profession through FNA membership.
The Florida Nurses Association is not a building, an office, or a staff. It is a community of nurses united by a common purpose. Its strength comes directly from its members. Every membership adds another voice to legislative advocacy. Every volunteer brings new ideas and leadership. Every committee member helps shape the future of nursing. Every nurse who joins strengthens our collective ability to influence decisions that affect our profession and our patients.
Membership is also an investment in yourself. FNA provides opportunities for continuing education, leadership development, mentoring, networking, career advancement, volunteer service, and lifelong professional relationships. Whether you aspire to become a clinical expert, educator, manager, researcher, executive, or elected leader, your professional association provides resources and opportunities that help you achieve those goals.
As an early career nurse, you represent the future of our profession. Your ideas, your energy, and your commitment are essential to meeting the challenges that lie ahead. Nursing has never advanced because someone else took responsibility. It has advanced because nurses became involved.
The profession you inherit tomorrow depends upon the commitment you make today. Join the Florida Nurses Association. Participate in its work. Become an advocate for your patients, your colleagues, and your profession. Together, we can build a stronger nursing workforce, create healthier practice environments, improve patient outcomes, and ensure that nursing continues to lead the future of healthcare in Florida.
Nursing needs your leadership. Your patients and your profession need your voice. The Florida Nurses Association is YOUR professional home. The door is open. Come in and take your seat.
