About
Black Nurses Association of Austin
Who Are We
Serve as a local nursing body to educate communities of color, influence legislation and policy that affect Black people and work cooperatively and collaborate with local healthcare provides.
Our Mission
The Black Nurses Associations of Austin mission is to represent and provide a forum for Nurses to advocate and implement strategies to ensure access to the highest quality of healthcare for persons of color in the community.
What We Do
Serve as the national nursing body to influence legislation and policies that affect Black people and work cooperatively and collaboratively with other health workers to this end.
Our History
The Black Nurses Association of Austin was organized in 2015 under the leadership of Janet Van Brakle RN and Co-founder Diana Kelly RN, BSN, MBA-HCM.
BNA is an affiliation of National Black Nurses Association which represents approximately 200,000 African American nurses from the USA, Canada, Eastern Caribbean and Africa, with 115 chartered chapters nationwide. The NBNA is a non-profit organization incorporated on September 2, 1972 in the state of Ohio.
BNA is committed to excellence in education and conducts continuing education programs for our communities throughout the year. The association will provide annual scholarships for students.
BNA collaborates with private and public agencies/organizations that share common concerns for improving the health status of all people, particularly African Americans and other minority.
Our Philosophy
"Optimal healthcare should be a privilege for every American."
Optimal healthcare should be a privilege for every American. Yet, Black Americans, along with other minority groups in our society, are by design or neglect, excluded from the means to achieve access to the health mainstream of America.
Since the above is true, we as Black nurses have established a organization to investigate, define, and determine what the health care needs of Black Americans are, and to implement change to make available to Black Americans and other minorities health care commensurate to that of the larger society.
Black nurses have the understanding, knowledge, interest, concern and experience to make a significant difference in the health care statues of the Black community. In order to implement the above philosophy, the founders agreed upon the following purposes and objectives for the national association.
Purposes and Objectives
- Define and determine nursing care for black consumers for optimum quality of care acting as their advocates.
- Act as a change agent in restructuring existing institutions and/or helping to establish institutions to suit our needs.
- Serve as the national nursing body to influence legislation and policies that affect Black people and work cooperatively and collaboratively with other health workers to this end.
- Recruit, counsel and assist black persons interested in nursing to insure a constant procession of blacks in the field.
- Be the vehicle for unification of black nurses of varied age groups, educational levels and geographic locations to insure continuity and flow of our common heritage.
- Collaborate with other black groups to compile archives relevant to the historical, current, and future activities of black nurses.
The founding members also determined that an Austin, Texas ministry designed primarily to unify all black nurses across the Central Texas for the betterment of health care for black people should be inclusive in its membership. Recognizing that a major concern of the organization was to organize a number of black nurses within the city. the founders believed that incorporating all levels of black nurses into the organization would place them in a better position to influence all nursing education programs in which black students were enrolled, as well as the caliber of all nursing services provided to black consumers. Therefore, from the very beginning, membership was open to registered nurses, licensed vocational/practical nurses and nursing students.