The Army Nurse Corps Association has since its founding held conventions every two years on even-numbered years, except for 2020, which had to be postponed because of the Covid pandemic. Our biennial gatherings include an agenda and speaker platform designed for celebrating the past, capitalizing on the present and connecting for the future.
This year's convention will have as its theme Fifty Years of Supporting Army Nursing. It will be held on 22-25 October at the Crowne Plaza Phoenix-Chandler Golf Resort in Chandler, Arizona. Built in 1912, the resort was originally conceived as a winter getaway for celebrities, dignitaries, and luminaries. Steeped in history and tradition, it features on-site dining in three restaurants, generously sized guest rooms with private balconies or patios, a resort-style pool with cabanas, and the championship San Marcos Golf Course, Arizona's first grass golf course. It is located in the heart of Downtown Chandler, brimming with more than two dozen independent restaurants, boutique shops.
We look forward to seeing ANCA members and hopefully some fresh faces at this convention! As is our tradition, we have a tour option on Thursday. Friday will start our general and continuing education sessions along with a buffet lunch and a reception for all attendees on Friday evening. On Saturday, our general sessions will continue, with our Gala on Saturday night. Sunday morning we’ll conclude with a buffet breakfast and our general sessions. And as always, we will have our ANCA store available during the Convention, with plenty of ANCA- and ANC-related items and other things of interest for you to purchase if you'd like.
If you're already ready, you can register right now – just press the green button at right. But for more details, read on.
We have assembled this distinguished group of presenters who will cover these diverse topics, each for 1 contact hour. To view presenters' biographies, click their names.
We Will Not Be Home By Christmas *
This presentation uses wartime letters and personal narratives to examine holiday deployments from World War I to Iraq. Through themes of separation, moral injury, resilience, grief, and camaraderie, it explores enduring psychosocial stressors of military service and equips nurses to provide trauma-informed, culturally competent, empathetic care for veterans and families.
Legislation and Policy Impacts on Military Health System Beneficiaries *
This presentation will discuss the beneficiary/patient challenges within the military health system and how legislative and policy solutions to the challenges impacts the system. Emphasis will be on the role of military and veteran service organizations in advancing legislative and policy solutions.
Karen Ruedisueli, BBA, Registered Lobbyist
Understanding Burnout Among Military Nurses: A Review of the Literature, Theory, and Preliminary Study Results *
This presentation examines evolving research on military nurse burnout, focusing on conceptual definitions, theory, and measurement. Job Demands-Resources theory is used as the lens for understanding occupational well-being and how job demands and resources affect burnout. Preliminary results from a study on Army nurses' leadership, burnout, and health are presented. There will be an exploration of future research directions for enhancing military nurse well-being.
Prehospital Blood: How Far We Have Come and How Far We Have To Go *
Civilian adoption of prehospital blood transfusion is rapidly increasing in the U.S. This session explains the necessity of this intervention to reduce preventable deaths from hemorrhage and highlights the Prehospital Blood Transfusion Coalition’s national efforts in advocacy, economics, scope of practice, research, and education. Attendees will learn how Change Theory drives program growth and identify the Coalition’s five foundational pillars.
The Army Nurse Corps in World War I *
World War I marked the Army Nurse Corps’ first major deployment. Initially too small for the mobilizing Army, it expanded to over 22,000 nurses, with more than 10,000 serving in France. Army Nurses staffed 160,000 beds and working near the front lines, began earning recognition for bravery. Other topics will be volunteer recruitment without a draft, hospitalization methods in France, and how Army Nurses distinguished themselves through front-line care.
This convention will again feature a showcase of research, evidence-based practice initiatives, and performance improvement (PI) project posters from ANCA members! If you are an ANCA member who would like to submit one related to any nursing research, evidence-based practice initiative, or performance improvement project done in any location, submit it to research@e-anca.org. Deadline for submission is 1 July 2026, notification will be made by 1 August; at that time you will receive display-poster-making instructions. This is a showcase, so posters may reflect work already presented at another venue.
Our selected optional pre-convention tour on Thursday will be to the Queen Creek Olive Mill – Arizona's only working olive farm and mill, where you can experience how high-quality olive oil is grown, pressed, and enjoyed while connecting with traditions that define the Mediterranean lifestyle. Family owned and operated, the 100-acre farm with over 7,000 olive trees is a true blossom-to-bottle experience. This four-hour midday tour begins with their Olive Oil 101 introduction, in which you will learn first-hand how olives are pressed into fresh extra virgin olive oil. Then comes a true farm-to-table lunch using local and garden-sourced ingredients. Before departing, you can taste your way through their gourmet marketplace and shop for locally made extra virgin olive oils, balsamic vinegars, olives and other local treasures. Plenty to taste, discover and enjoy!
Transportation is of course included, and you can sign up for the tour and make luncheon selections when you register.
We will again have an opportunity to purchase ANCA "merch" at the convention. We are developing a new approach for year-round availability, so stay tuned for all the details coming soon.
The green Register Now button at left will take you to our registration page, where you can select among many options at this convention: Full registration, one- or two-day registrations, guest and single event registrations, and tour signup. You will find the link to make hotel reservations there, which will assure you get the ANCA reduced rate. That page also has more details, including the complete convention program and the list of others who have registered! If you need to pay by check rather than credit card, download the mail-in reservation form here.
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Any questions? Contact the Convention Committee Chair under Convention on our Contact Us page.