Transforming Healthcare Is the Point. AONL Members Make It Happen.

eNews Leadership Update | Oct. 23, 2026 

In AONL Professional Practice, I have a front-row seat to members’ deep and broad expertise. It is stunning to see across each member. But what makes AONL extraordinary is what happens when that expertise comes together with a shared purpose: transforming healthcare. 

Across AONL's member-led groups (MLGs), nurse leaders from diverse practice settings, organizations and regions are doing far more than exchanging ideas. They are creating the frameworks, tools and resources that advance nursing leadership and shape healthcare delivery nationwide. The work of these groups touches every part of the AONL strategic plan and brings one of our core pillars—community—to life by connecting members around shared challenges, priorities and solutions. 

Consider the impact. Members have propelled the revision of the AONL Nurse Leader Core Competencies™, with integrated functional behaviors coming soon. They are advancing the Guiding Principles of the CNO-CFO Relationship as well as Digital Transformation, strengthening the business case for nursing through the AONL ROI Calculator and addressing leadership workload through the Nurse Manager Span of Accountability Index. As we approach National Rural Health Month in November, members are also elevating innovative approaches to rural healthcare leadership and the unique needs of rural communities. These singular sentences encapsulate anywhere from six months to three years of member-led work. It is easy to skim over it in writing; it is hard to miss AONL members’ impact in practice. 

And that's only a glimpse of the work underway.

What makes AONL distinctive among professional nursing organizations is that our members are not simply consumers of professional resources. They are the leaders doing the work. They identify challenges, probe assumptions, contribute evidence and build pragmatic solutions that extend well beyond their own organizations.

To every member who contributes time, experience and intellectual energy to this work: thank you. Your influential leadership is shaping the profession.

Transforming healthcare is the point, and AONL members make it happen. 

Joni Watson, DNP, MBA, RN, OCN® 
Senior Director, Professional Practice 
American Organization for Nursing Leadership