The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses had long discussed preserving its historical archives, but the organization’s 50th anniversary provided the momentum to finally bring the idea to life. Now, AACN is partnering with the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing to safeguard its records and make them accessible to researchers and others interested in the evolution of the nursing profession. 

As the largest specialty nursing association in the world, AACN has amassed an extensive collection of paper and digital documents, audio and visual recordings, and other assets that chronicle the development of critical care nursing. The collection stretches back to the organization’s founding as the American Association of Cardiovascular Nurses in 1969 and includes early seminar brochures, member scrapbooks, association awards, and a gavel engraved with the initials of AACN’s past presidents—items that could easily be lost to time without intentional preservation. 

AACN is working with Penn Nursing’s Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing to preserve and steward the collection. It will be among the largest holdings housed at the center, which encompasses more than 3,000 linear feet of archival materials, supporting its mission to deepen understanding of nursing as a pathway to improving health and advancing health equity worldwide. 

“AACN recognized its obligation to preserve our continuing history as a resource for researchers, educators, and students seeking to understand the evolution of critical care nursing and its impact on patient outcomes,” said Ramón Lavandero, senior strategic advisor and organizational historian for AACN, which will retain ownership of the collection. 

Partners in Preservation 

 AACN has had a long-standing relationship with Penn Nursing. Over the years, work from Penn faculty and students has featured prominently in AACN presentations and publications, and faculty have served in national leadership roles within the organization. More recently, Penn researchers have collaborated with AACN to expand its groundbreaking surveys focused on establishing and sustaining healthy work environments in healthcare.   

Given their deep history of collaboration, Penn Nursing was a clear choice for AACN’s archives project, Lavandero said. For the school’s Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, the partnership is about more than expanding its collection. According to J. Margo Brooks Carthon, Ph.D., the Van Ameringen Chair of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing and director of the Bates Center, it’s about sharing context for future advancements in nursing and healthcare. “It’s hard to innovate unless we have a sense of where we’ve been,” she said. “It’s important for policy; it’s important for practice changes. The more we know about where we’ve been, the more we have a sense of our possibilities and our potential.” 

Inside the Archiving Process 

The Bates Center’s staff archivist, Jessica Clark, is working with AACN to ensure its collection is both protected and accessible. It involves a multistep process that begins with AACN reviewing its materials and determining what’s worth preserving and what can be set aside. Items removed from the archive typically include things like duplicate copies of publications and sensitive materials unsuitable for the public domain, Lavandero said. 

Once he determines what should be sent, Lavandero loads the materials into archival boxes. In each box, he includes a spreadsheet that outlines the contents—something Clark said has been a significant help. “Ramon has been great at providing a brief inventory so I can open the box without being completely surprised,” she said. “Then I can sort the folders by topics, like policy, board of directors, or fundraising.” 

As she organizes the materials, Clark considers how researchers, students, or other users might search the records. The goal is to make them as discoverable and accessible as possible. “The ultimate effort is to create a finding aid that will go online,” Clark said. “It will be accessible to anyone throughout the world, and they can look and see what is actually in this material.” 

Scope of the Project 

Since beginning the project more than five years ago, AACN has shipped about 100 archival boxes of materials to the Bates Center. Lavandero expects to send another 100 boxes by the time this phase of the process is complete, before they turn their attention to physical artifacts, such as the association awards and the engraved gavel. 

Given the depth of AACN’s collection, this is no small project. Clark anticipates having an initial finding aid of the materials online by December 2026, with final processing taking an additional two to three years. In the meantime, she said, anyone with questions about the archive or interest in viewing specific materials is welcome to reach out. 

Lavandero said that despite the level of effort involved, the project is well worth it—both to preserve AACN’s organizational history and to document its impact on society. He noted that many associations, especially those in healthcare, do work for the public good even if they’re not always publicly visible. 

“Professional associations advance the development of both the professions and the services they provide,” he said. “Archival collections support this work by providing researchers, educators, and students with source material to understand this evolution.” 

Guidance for Other Associations 

For other associations considering a historical archive project like this, Lavandero said that now is the time to get started. “It’s easy to discard things later on, but impossible to retrieve discarded materials,” he warned. “Initiate conversations with your association’s volunteer and staff leaders about the importance of having archives and talk with associations that have done this successfully.” 

  Once volunteers and staff members are on board, Clark recommends reaching out to local or regional archives to explore potential partnerships or seek guidance. “It’s never going to be a rush situation,” she said. “It should just feel organic, and you should have a partnership with whatever archive or archivist you work with—even if you hire someone to come in to help you find this material.” 

With the right support, she added, associations can protect their history for generations to come. “Preserving your records strengthens your collective community, it strengthens your region, it strengthens your specialty,” she said. “Even if you’re the local historical society, that’s still a reference of memory and collectiveness, and that’s where your legacy lives—in your archive materials.”