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The Future of Nursing

In 2008, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) launched a two year initiative to purposely assess and transform the nursing profession. The collaboration established a key project on the Future of Nursing. The aim of the program was to conduct a study with an objective of producing a transformational report on the future of nursing (Shalala et al., 2011). The program has diversely impacted on the quality of care as it seeks to make future healthcare provision services much better. This essay explores the work of the RWJF Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine research that led to the IOM report, “Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” Moreover, it presents why the report is important with respect to nursing practice, nursing education and nursing workforce development, as well as the role of state-based action coalitions and how they advance goals of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.

The IOM report by the RWJF Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine research was released in 2010. The report was of essence as it was purposed to establish recommendations for maintaining an action-based blueprint for the future of nursing. The recommendations were to be reflected in the ongoing nursing practice for purposes of advancing the nursing profession (Shalala et al., 2011). The report led other constituent state nurses associations to participate in a wide range of actions in supporting the evidence-based recommendations established by the IOM (Perez, Nichols, & Quinn, 2018). The report was to spearhead a committee that would promptly examine the potentiality of the nursing workforce to meeting the needs of public health and a reformed health care system. In addition, the report developed a number of bold national recommendations with the capacity to address the delivery of quality nursing services. In the report, the committee defined a precise agenda and a blueprint for action-oriented objectives including reformed changes in institutional and public policies at state, national, and local levels. The recommendations were steered towards addressing a wide range of system changes, entailing more innovative strategies of solving the issue of nursing shortage within the United States.

The report formed a broad base of advancing nursing efficiency efforts through embedding lean principles across all nursing departments. All the efforts are streamlined towards achieving a more streamlined line of operation and a permanent process of flow improvement for enhancing the work experience and efficiency among health technicians, nurses, clinical physicians, as well as the ancillary personnel (Perez, Nichols, & Quinn, 2018). The work was designed to continually advance the practice operations on cross-training nurses, nursing-sensitive quality measure improvements, enhancing the nurse scientist program, and enhancing sustainability of the nationally benchmarked productivity targets. It can examine and provide recommendations with regards to a number of issues, with the objective of identifying the key roles of nurses during the design and implementation of a highly efficient health care system (Shalala et al., 2011).

The IOM report is of importance in relation to nursing practice, nursing education and nursing workforce development. The initial key message from the IOM report highlights that “advanced practice registered nurses should be able to practice to the full extent of their education and training” (Perez, Nichols, & Quinn, 2018) The message incorporates a number of proposed legislative initiatives for the Federal Trade Commission, the Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, state legislatures, as well as the Office of Personnel Management. The report is of importance because it re-conceptualized the role of nurse practitioners in their workforce, in handling societal issues, shortages, and current and future technologies in the medical field. 

The report further seals the need for nurse practitioners to achieve high education levels and trainings through partnership with improved systems of education that promote seamless academic progress. The initiative blends with a number of recommendations like providing competency-based system of education, increasing the nurses’ proportion with a bachelor’s of science in nursing to eighty percent and enhancing inter-professional education on work collaborations and team work (Perez, Nichols, & Quinn, 2018).  Redesigning the systems of education and increasing diversity in the practice workforce is of essence especially in producing a greater capacity of nurses, who are well prepared towards meeting the current and future demands within health care.

The recommendations set forth on efficacy are of importance in increasing the quality of care in nursing profession and efficiency in operations. It also advocates for partnership for progress where nurses are required to cultivate the culture of full partnership with physicians and the healthcare staff in redesigning the healthcare. The report calls upon nurses to develop a unique portfolio of leadership skills in matching the necessary systemic healthcare reform (Shalala et al., 2011). According to the report, transformations within the healthcare system is dependent upon a renewed focus on collaborations and leadership capacities at every level of nursing practice. Moreover, the IOM report further cites the Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform Initiative as the most innovative form of nurse-directed technology development (Perez, Nichols, & Quinn, 2018). Nurses must seek out to implement and use technological advances for providing patient-centered care that is efficient, safe, easily accessible and less burdensome to practitioners.

According to the National Academies of Sciences (2016), state-based action coalitions play a vital role of transforming healthcare within the state. The coalition recognizes the important works that are underway within the medical field and aim to sponsor the projects and ensure continuity in care delivery. The objective here is to enhance the discovery of a long-term sustainable change and spearhead improvements of health of the population within the state. The state coalitions work towards sealing the recommendations of the IOM report, sharpen the national focus on state challenges towards providing a high-quality and affordable care. The coalition’s advance the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action by spearheading healthcare operations, and meeting the health needs of people by funding such programs to sustain the work. National campaigns on improved nursing convenes diverse leadership and advisory committees to advance the objectives of the IOM report, and work towards advancing the recommendations within the state hospitals (Shalala et al., 2011). They act as a driving force for the campaign because they network to effect changes even at local levels.

My state spearheads a number of action coalitions towards nursing. It examines innovative solutions to care delivery and assigns well prepared nurses to diverse practice settings. It has established policies that mainly attract and retain qualified health practitioners in diverse care settings, including primary care, ambulatory, long term care, acute, community and public health. The coalition has further diversified on healthcare transformations using improved technology. Data collection and information infrastructure within the medical institutions confirm the central role of technology in transforming nursing. Investing in real-time data informs and predicts sensitive changes within the nursing workforce and practice across multiple settings. As everyone understands, technology continually evolves. As such, there will be better upgrades, new software and different strategies of operating things. The reason why hospitals fail to keep up the competitive age of such changes is that it is a struggle for the older staff. They require consistent trainings. Nursing advocates in my state can, however, overcome these barriers by scheduling training sessions to improve their operation efficiency especially on the technological aspects, and signing sponsorship programs to fund the hospital operations with a goal of improving efficiency.

In conclusion, the OM report has a number of implications on the quality of nursing. Moreover, the IOM “Future of Nursing” report is of essence in relation to nursing practice, nursing education and nursing workforce development. As discussed, state-based action coalitions play a big role in advancing the goals of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.