Position Statements

AMSN Position Statements reflect AMSN's organizational positions on specific public policy topics and guide our communications with policymakers, the media and the general public. Position statements are concrete applications of the Society's Code of Ethics and other official documents and are circulated for member comment prior to adoption. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity

AMSN is committed to strengthening our diversity, equity, and inclusion, to ensure these are woven deeply into the fabric of our mission, goals, and the experiences we provide for our nurses. Embracing diverse perspectives leads to hearing multiple viewpoints on issues, realizing full potentials, and finding innovative solutions. Read the Position Statement.

Health Literacy

AMSN recognizes that health literacy is crucial to patient safety and health maintenance. Read the Position Statement.

Importance Of Evidence-Based Professional Competencies In Medical-Surgical Nursing

Beyond licensure and professional certification, neither the health care industry sector nor individual nurses possess sufficient validated guidance necessary to assess and then improve competency in a standardized, evidence-based manner. Read the Position Statement.

Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification

AMSN supports certification as a commitment to safe, evidence-based, holistic care which results in desired patient outcomes. Read the Position Statement.

Medical-Surgical Nurses in Leadership

Our organization actively seeks opportunities to successfully place medical-surgical nurses in health care stakeholder advisory bodies and leadership positions at the state and federal levels and within the health care sector. Read the Position Statement.

Nurse Workforce Development

The future supply of nurses is critical to patient access to high quality care in every environment, particularly with our aging population and among people lacking access to care. Medical-surgical nurses promote patient access to high quality health care by supporting reauthorization, improvement and full funding of federal nurse workforce development programs. Read the Position Statement.

Opioid Crisis

We promote implementation and funding of evidence-based policy to prevent and address the national opioid crisis, including the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (P.L. 115-271) and related measures at the federal and state levels.Read the Position Statement.

Practice Environment Advocacy

AMSN created this practice environment advocacy position statement to respond to a need indicated in a member survey. AMSN wants to empower nurses to transform their workplaces.Read the Position Statement.

Political Awareness for the RN

Medical-surgical nurses are the largest group of health care professionals must recognize their inherent power to influence change in health policy.Read the Position Statement.

Safe Workplaces and Professional Respect

In the interest of patient safety and healthy, effective systems for health care delivery, we identify and promote evidence-based strategies that improve workplace safety for medical-surgical nurses and advance their professional recognition. Read the Position Statement.

Safe Staffing for Nurses

Nurses and their expertise understanding and addressing patient acuity, not one- size-fits-all mandates, are critical to improving and ensuring safe patient care. We advance evidence-based initiatives promoting safe staffing to improve patient health care quality and access, and to reduce health care costs. Read the Position Statement.

Social Determinants of Health

Where health care delivery systems connect with social determinants of health (SDOH), health care has a responsibility and an opportunity to be part of the solution. Medical-surgical nurses support leveraging their roles in patient discharge and transfer processes to advance evidence-based initiatives addressing SDOH to improve health and reduce health care costs. Read the Position Statement.

Staffing Standards for Patient Care

AMSN supports provision of the highest quality patient care through appropriate use of staffing standards. Read the Position Statement.