IOM Future of Nursing Report and Nursing Practice

Answer

IOM Future of Nursing Report and Nursing Practice

The health sector has always experienced significant changes that alter the operations and demands, which often necessitates a proper formulation of changes and recommendations that can assist in meeting these needs. The Future of Nursing Institute of Medicine (IOM) report provided a detailed examination of how nurses' education, responsibilities, and roles should change to meet the contemporary healthcare expectations, especially with an increasingly aging population, diversified, and sophisticated with an evolving healthcare system. In the report, the primary focus was the exposition of the intersection between the patients' health needs and the nurses' ability to meet such expectations (Altman et al., 2016). Therefore, the work of the Robert Wood Foundation Committee Initiative that led to the IOM report was to analyze and make recommendations that would improve every American health sector by enhancing nurses' contribution to the delivery of healthcare services and increased quality of the outcome.

While structuring the discussion and the recommendations, the committee formulated four key messages that would result from their deliberations. The messages included the need to have nurses as full partners in redesigning the health system in the United States in collaboration with physicians and other health professionals (Eastman, 2016). Secondly, nurses need to attain higher levels of education, a system that would help in promoting seamless academic progression. Third, the nurses should have an opportunity to practice fully of their training and education and finally, effective workplace policy and planning for better data collection and improvement if the information system within the health institutions (Hassmiller & Reinhard, 2019).

These messages have been instrumental in transforming nursing practice, leadership, education and training, and the overall workforce in various ways. Nurses have become more innovative through a change of practice scope to improve the quality of care despite the system barriers resulting from the flaws. Besides, an improved educational level and training have also helped in attaining the evidence-based practice in the contemporary healthcare through better research skills and data formulation, transforming the sector to a more patient-centered approach (Eastman, 2016). Furthermore, if nurses have to be part of the vision that will change the health sector, they must produce leaders with the right skills from the bedside to the boardroom to ensure other stakeholders in the industry remain accountable. This has led to more efficiency and accountability since nurses are becoming more professional and competent in service delivery. 

The transformation in the American health system has taken a massive step with the inclusion of state-based collaborations known as the action coalitions with vital roles in advancing the goals specified in the IOM report. Primarily, the action coalitions undertake healthcare campaigns at the local, state, and regional levels to help drive change through a transformation of nursing practice locally (Hassmiller & Reinhard, 2019). In most cases, these advocates do not come from a singular profession rather inclusive of building a healthier community through proper nursing practices. Therefore, the states utilize these coalitions to improve healthcare services and awareness. All these work for the overall good on the intentions of developing more proactive healthcare through change that advances health (Altman et al., 2016). With the campaigns, the difference becomes a reality embraced by every stakeholder, making it beneficial to the most targeted group.  

In my state, Florida, action coalitions are making impressive progress in improving the health sector through vibrant initiatives spearheading the changes in nursing practice. Primarily, they aim at providing leadership in advancing the nursing profession for a holistic transformation of the industry. The main reason for initiating these action coalitions was to give the nurses an opportunity to offer better and safer healthcare in every facility within the state (Hassmiller & Reinhard, 2019). Such would increase the access rates and allow the locals to enjoy the services from the nearest facilities. Therefore, the nurses should contribute toward the process and make provisions for the incorporation of improvements and facilities that leads to the advancement of the quality of outcome and building a healthier environment. 

Therefore, Florida has opted to take the first initiative of integrating the educational training and qualification to the scope of practice in the health sector, especially in line with nursing practice. This has been useful in appreciating the different levels of education skills and training by various nurses, thereby ensuring proper distribution of the nurses across the state with critical consideration of their abilities. Since the nursing profession requires lifelong learning, improving the level of education has always been the aim of the state such that the number of nurses with bachelor's and master’s in nursing can increase (Hassmiller & Reinhard, 2019). With such increases, the quality of outcome has to improve since the level of training has a robust correlation to the quality of the outcome. Besides, by incorporating other professionals in the campaigns and mobilization, the industry receives well-articulated, articulated ideas whose implementation works for the profession's ultimate good as nurses begin to have a broader perspective of health issues.

The other initiative is the diversification of the workforce to create various aspects and views that foster collaboration and the creation of a mutual understanding. This has been useful in creating common grounds under which the action coalitions can perform to the best level. The health sector is very diverse since the clients and the professionals have different qualifications. Therefore, respect for professionalism and accountability is critical, making other stakeholders equally crucial in the quest to make the IOM report's recommendations a reality (Peterson, 2017). With this diversification, the healthcare disparities become a non-issue to nurses as it helps in eliminating several barriers that otherwise were a great hindrance to their practice. The elimination of practice and service barriers are then instrumental in furthering the anticipated changes in this industry.

Despite the initiatives to advance the nursing profession, barriers still exist, which creates a significant level of complications. However, Florida is making every effort to ensure they address them through feasible strategies that support the IOM report's primary objectives and goals. With the report acknowledging the anticipated changes in the landscape of healthcare and population profiling in the United States, a shortage of primary care health professionals has been a significant barrier in Florida (Peterson, 2017). Therefore, the vital points of contentions have been the requirements of APRN oversight that is supposed to be done by the medical instead of the nursing licensing boards, clinical licensing and hospital admitting privileges (Altman et al., 2016). Resolutions must take an approach that addresses such concerns to help in understanding the bigger picture and the reason why changes are essential and inevitable.  Florida has a work in progress to build common ground around the scope of practice and other policies revolving around the practice. Although the coalitions are inclusive, they should broaden to include other stakeholders so that the campaigns learn from mistakes while building on their success to achieve a unified community geared toward a common goal of improving healthcare practice for the best interest of the patients.downsides, hence facilitating an effective engagement process.