Advocating excellence and creating opportunities for nurse attorneys.
The American Association of Nurse Attorneys (TAANA) provides resources, education and leadership to its members and the healthcare and legal communities.
TAANA members practice in private law practice, in academia, as litigators and defense attorneys, as legal counsel for healthcare entities, and in health care compliance among other settings.
In 1977, the late Cynthia E. Northrop, then an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, took the first steps toward creating what is now The American Association of Nurse Attorneys (TAANA). Ms. Northrop placed notices in various publications requesting the nurse attorneys or nurses in law school identify themselves. At about the same time, other nurse attorneys in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City undertook similar efforts.
Early activities focused on identifying and communicating with each other. Meetings were held in various metropolitan areas where interested nurse attorneys were clustered, and a network evolved among those groups.
On August 30, 1982, the group incorporated in the District of Columbia as The American Association of Nurse Attorneys, Inc. That November, over 60 nurse attorneys and students attended the first national meeting in Washington, DC. At that meeting, the membership elected the first board of directors, and the board subsequently elected the first officers. The first newsletter was published in July 1983, and the first TAANA Membership Directory was compiled and distributed. TAANA established an office in Baltimore in 1984. In 2002 they moved their National Office to Columbus, Ohio.
Download the informational slide show! (Microsoft PowerPoint self-guided slide show, 4.4 Mb)
View the TAANA Bylaws (pdf).