Introduction:
The art of nursing exists primarily to intensify the health and wellbeing of patients and their families. Nursing instinct is crafted from learned knowledge, real experiences and the development of personal experiences as well as personal and learned philosophies by incorporating evidence-based observations, testing, and proven theories. The nursing profession faces many challenges in today’s ever-changing health care. Nursing roles are expanding and developing rapidly and old skills becoming more and more obsolete. The call for nurses to become more proactive in meeting the health care demand of the future is increasing.
The Future of Nursing:
The institute of medicine (IOM) in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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This comprehensive healthcare legislation is meant to improve and expand quality, access, and value of healthcare in the United States and will create new roles and opportunities for nurses. This message and recommendations have an impact on nursing education, nursing leadership, and overall nursing practice. According to IOM 2010 report nurse’s education needs to be fundamentally improved before they get their license to meet health care demand of higher education. Meaning, nurses should have achieved a higher level of education and training with the accredited academic school to meet the demand of a very complex health care …show more content…
Nurses today have more complex responsibility than in the past and this will continue to increase because of the complexity of the health care system to meet the need of patients. It is essential for nurses to receive higher education and training to respond to changing patients’ needs and to meet the dynamic environment in which they will practice. The recommendation from IOM that 80% of the nursing workforce will have the baccalaureate degree in nursing in the year 2020. Additionally, Magnet hospital prepared more baccalaureate nurses than associate degree nursing because of more training to leadership, management and community base health nursing. The idea of pursuing a higher level of education is to promote quality care through critical thinking skills and research in order to meet the health care system’s demand for quality nursing care. A highly educated nurse is preferred to handle the challenges of today’s healthcare environment. This transformation should occur in this area, education, practice and leadership as suggested by IOM. These well-trained nurses include Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Midwives, Nurse Anesthetics and clinical nurse specialists who can practice to the full extent of their education and training. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes
The IOM report had four key messages needed for advancing the future of nursing. “Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training; achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression; be full partners, with physicians and other health care professionals, …and; effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure” (Institute of Medicine, 2011). The report also included eight recommendations needed to facilitate the necessary changes to in the nursing profession so meet to demands of the healthcare reform.
IOM (Institute of Medicine). (2011). The future of nursing: leading change, advancing health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Institute of Medicine (2010). The future of nursing: Leading change advancing health Retrieved from http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12956&page+R1
This paper focuses on providing a summary of the efforts of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine research which influenced the IOM report, “Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” The importance of the IOM “Future of Nursing” report related to the nursing practice, nursing education and nursing workforce development will be stated. The role of state-based action coalitions and how they advance goals of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action will be described. A summary on will be provided of two (2) initiatives that are spearheaded by Florida state’s Action Coalition with an explanation of ways in which the initiatives advance the nursing profession. Existing barriers to advancement currently in Florida and ways in which nursing advocates may overcome these barriers will be discussed.
The effects on nursing education includes a growth in the number of higher cadre of nurses equipped with leadership and community health skills and knowledge. Institutions with higher trained nurses have recorded less mortality rate (AACN, 2014). The growth in number of nurses would positively impact on the nursing shortage thus leading to improvement on care outcome (AACN, 2014). The training institution require nurses at doctorate level thus the initiative to double the existing number will assist the institution prepare adequately for the growing number of students (IOM,
Nurse Residency Programs are one way to make nursing practice safer for the patient and to keep nurses from leaving the practice. The Affordable Care Act will increase the number of patients receiving medical care over the next several years. We, as a nation, will need adequate numbers of nurses to fill the void. Many hospitals and universities are constructing nurse residency programs to meet that need. The designation of these programs is to increase knowledge, confidence and job satisfaction of new graduate nurses in their first year of practice. The AACN and University HealthSystem Consortium support the concept of nursing residencies. In 2004, an outline for nurse residency programs became available through their joint effort. Currently, 30 states are currently using the model successfully. The funding for nursing residencies is an area that needs addressing, federal funding for nursing education should include nursing residencies ("Nurse Residency Program," 2012). The purpose of this paper is to describe how this issue can move into a “policy window” using John Kingdon’s Policy Stream Model.
Heller, B. R. , Oros, M. T., & Durney-Crowley, J. (2000). The future of nursing education: 10 trends to watch. Nursing and Health Care Perspectives, 21(1), 9-13.
Health care reform has been a major issue over the past decade. The Nursing industry has in particular experienced a period of unpredictable change. On Dec 24, 2009, a landmark measure was passed in the senate by a vote of 60 to 39. This decision to pass the health care reform will change America forever. Nurses will constitute the largest single group of health care professionals. They will have a huge impact on quality and effectiveness in health care. The nursing industry will help hold this new program together by acting as the glue (The nursing industry will be the glue holding the new health care in tact.) It is estimated that by 2015 the number of nurses will need to increase to over 4 million. Nurses are the backbone of the health care industry thus creating better polices for this profession will help ease the workload and high demand. A nurse’s main concern is always to insure quality care and the safety of their patients. Under the new health care reform several new measures have been set into place to ease the transition and improve the quality of care for all patients. One program is designed to fund scholarships and loan programs to offset the high costs of education. Nursing shortages and the high turnover has become a serious epidemic. Health care reform is supposed going to solve many of these problems.
The 2010 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report- The Future of Nursing described the role that nurses have in the current and future US health care environment (IOM, 2011). This report was completed at a time when the Affordable Care Act had been passed and a new emphasis was being put on interdisciplinary healthcare teams, care coordination, value-based payment systems, and preventative care (IOM, 2011). Nursing is the largest profession in health care and with an aging baby boomer populace, the expanded role of nurses will be critical in meeting the growing healthcare burdens (Sisko et al., 2014).
Current literature continues to reiterate the indicators of a major shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. The total RN population has been increasing since 1980, which means that we have more RNs in this country than ever before (Nursing Shortage). Even though the RN population is increasing, it is growing at a much slower rate then when compared to the rate of growth of the U.S. population (Nursing Shortage). We are seeing less skilled nurses “at a time of an increasingly aging population with complex care needs and an increasingly complex technological care environment” (Mion). According to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Health and Human Services, it is estimated that “more than a million new and replacement nurses will be needed over the next decade” (Diagnosis: Critical).
Healthcare is a continuous emerging industry across the world. With our ever changing life styles and the increased levels of pollution across the world more and more people are suffering from various health issues. Nursing is an extremely diverse profession and among the highest educated with several levels ranging from a licensed practical nurse (LPN) to a registered nurse (RN) on up to a Doctorate in Nursing. Diane Viens (2003) states that ‘The NP is a critical member of the workforce to assume the leadership roles within practice, education, research, health systems, and health policy’.
There has been a drastic cut in both the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. According to Robert (2012), “cuts of more than $360 billion to Medicare and Medicaid will be made over the next 10 years. The focus of nursing needs to emphasize more on wellness care and prevention rather than acute care” (McNeal, G., 2012). Nursing practice will need to shift more towards community and population focused nursing. Baccalaureate prepared nurses are provided with a curriculum that includes both community health and leadership skills that are not included in the associate program. By encouraging associate’s degree nurses to obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing, an increase in the awareness of the needs of the community and population may be seen. The IOM report has outlined the anticipated obstacles that healthcare will face if changes are not made. By allowing nurses to provide care within their full scope of practice, quality care may be provided at an affordable cost to the population. The use of advanced practice nurses in primary care may provide quality, access, and cost efficient healthcare to high-risk populations and possibly decrease hospital admission rates, thus lowering the overall cost of healthcare. If nurses partner with doctors and other healthcare providers, it may improve healthcare by providing seamless transitions (Institute of Medicine,
In the 21st century, growing health care needs, development in medical technology, patient safety issues and emerging new diseases are currently areas of concern among healthcare systems worldwide. Taking into consideration these, along with the shortages of nursing personnel, have led to significant shifts into more complex nursing role. As a consequence, nurses are constantly required, by means of academic education, to equip themselves with critical thinking skills in order to deliver high-quality nursing care and achieve better patient outcomes (Scheckel, 2009). Therefore, nursing educational institutions are challenged to prepare and produce high educated nurses to meet those demands. Moreover, nursing students are expected to be able and ready to apply the lesson learned from their education into practice in various clinical settings after graduating.
To briefly summarize, the report identifies nurses as an important factor in enabling access to high quality, affordable health care. This was supported by the development of four fundamental recommendations. The first suggests that nurses be allowed to practice within the scope of their degree. This becomes evident in the differences in state laws that pertain to nurse’s who have acquired advanced degrees, such as the nurse practitioner.... ...
Issues and trends in the nursing profession are constantly changing due to discoveries in technology and research, changes in reimbursement and legislation, and the changing needs of our population; in fact the only constant in healthcare is change. This course has provided me with a foundation and better understanding of the need for higher education to empower nurses to become leaders and help shape the future of the nursing profession. Nurses are the “backbone” of healthcare and this is becoming more evident with the changes we are currently seeing in the healthcare industry.