As part of our commitment to the community, the association provides, free of charge to the community, a 24 hour voicemail service to answer health-related questions and where anyone can call and request to hire a registered professional nurse. Scholarship assistance is provided to nursing students in local colleges. A number of local charities are financially assisted through A&A's charitable giving, and mother and baby education is provided for mothers in need. New Jersey Patient Bill of Rights In 1993-94, several of A&A's founding members successfully lobbied for an amendment to the New Jersey Patient Bill of Rights to allow New Jersey patients the right "to contract directly with a New Jersey licensed registered professional nurse of the patient's choosing for private and professional care during hospitalization."

What does this mean?

For the community, it means there is a choice. If a patient prefers a particular nurse, who perhaps has cared for him in the past, he can insist upon having that nurse render private professional care to him while in the hospital. Anyone; patients, family members, friends, etc., looking for information and/or registered nurse referrals can call A&A knowing that, because A&A is a non-profit professional nurse organization, their concerns will be addressed without the motive to exact a profit.

For hospitals, it means that by law, they MUST refer the local non-profit nurse association registry, as a cost-effective, quality alternative to the higher costs of proprietary nursing agencies. For hospitals located in northern New Jersey, that registry is the A&A Nurses Registry.

For the Registered Nurse members of A&A, it means that their primary loyalty is to their patients. Because they contract directly with the patient, they are free to adjust their care, schedule and fees to the patient's needs. A&A Member Nurses never charge fees which are higher than what is considered usual and customary within the community. This is a very different situation at a proprietary agency where the nurse works for the agency and exists primarily to produce a profit for the temp-help agency employer.