The American healthcare industry is possibly one of its kind in the world as it comprises of a whopping 3 million members as part of its nursing profession, and this makes it the largest workforce segment of the nation. The nursing professionals are in forefront as they interact directly with the patients and thus play a very pivotal role in the successful realization of the objectives of the Affordable Care Act 2010. This legislation is phenomenal in the American healthcare as it possibly represents the most comprehensive health care renovation since the introduction of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in the year 1965.
In the year 2008, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in association with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) designed a two-year long campaign initiative that focused upon the nursing profession and its significance to the American healthcare industry. The IOM set in a place the Committee on the RWJF Initiative to focus on the Future of the Nursing profession, with the objective of creating a report that would make necessary recommendations for the future of the nursing profession.
The report that was planned to be created was aimed as being an action-oriented blueprint that would help to bring about the required changes into the nursing profession so that the future of the profession is brighter. IOM finally released the report in 2010, which was titled ‘Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,’ and this report received commendable laurels from people of all walks in the nation.
There are a plethora of obstacles that come in way of the nurses not being able to readily respond to the constantly changing health care scenario of the nation and also to the continually evolving system of health care. It is very important that all such barriers are overcome in order to make sure that the nurses are well positioned to facilitate the implementation of changes in the healthcare system while also aiding in the progress of the healthcare industry at large.
There are a number of setting in which nurses’ work, like for example, hospitals, schools, clinics, long-term care facilities and community health centers among others. The nurses come from varied backgrounds, different levels of education, and they are even different in terms of their competencies and skill sets because while there may be a few licensed nurses they may also be nurse scientists.
Each of the individual nurses play a unique yet different role. While the licensed nurses do contribute a lot to patient care in primary health care centers and nursing homes, the nurse scientists on the other hand constantly carry out research for finding out ways and means that are more effective in providing better care to the patients.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) was one among the many who had poured in a lots of laurels on the report released by IOM. The ANA acknowledges the imminent need for nurses to don the cap of a leadership role, regardless of the kind of setting in which they operate in, if they are to meet the constantly growing demands of the contemporary health care system that is continually evolving.
ANA was very happy to recognize that a wide range of the elements and commendations made in the IOM report are highlighted in the current work that ANA does for the betterment of the nursing profession. ANA claims itself being in complete harmony with the four "key messages" that the report details. Through its discussions and reflections on the issue at hand, the IOM and RWJF Committee developed four crucial messages for the nursing profession.
They are as follows:
Nursing practice should be continued to the complete extent of nurse education and training.
There is an imminent need for nurses to gain higher levels of education as well as training, and the system of education for nurses should be a robust one which would foster continuous academic development.
Nurses should work in complete partnership with the physicians and various other care delivery members, for reforming the current health care system of the United States.
“Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and information infrastructure.”
The ANA, along with a number of state-level nurse associations have collaborated in several activities in the recent past, with an intention to foster evidence-based recommendations made by IOM in its report. According to Harvey V. Fineberg, the President of IOM, “Nurses are a linchpin for health reform and will be vital to implementing systemic changes in the delivery of care.”
The various types of nursing care models that are currently in place, offer profound insights with respect to improvement of patient care. Health care settings employing increased number of nurses reportedly are believed to have lesser number medical errors, lower infection rates that are acquired by patient within the hospital, shorter duration of stays in the hospital as well as decreased rates of patient mortality.
Nurses are offered exceptional degree of training so that they even offer case management for patients suffering from chronic ailments, helping them evade expensive acute care. The plethora of efforts that are led by nurses with respect to health promotion and screening for the early detection of ailments form the crux of preventive care and wellness, which in the long-run would surely help in minimizing the burden of ailment. In concurrence with physicians and other members of healthcare deliver, advance practice nurses can offer more effective primary care services to the patients.
The IOM report is essentially a result of thorough examination of the role played by nurses in the healthcare industry and the way in which their role, education, training and responsibilities are to be altered in order to meet the demands of the elderly patients, the growing diverse population, and also to respond to the continually evolving healthcare system today.
The recommendations made by IOM in this report fundamentally emphasize on the critical collaboration that is required between the healthcare needs of the patients throughout the various stages of their life and the inclination and promptness of the nursing professionals. These recommendations are aimed at supporting the wide range of efforts for enhancing healthcare delivery for all the people of the United States by way of improving the contributions that are being made by the nurses’ in care delivery.
References
American Nurses Assocation (ANA). (2010). IOM Future of Nursing Report. Retrieved from American Nurses Assocation (ANA): http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ThePracticeofProfessionalNursing/workforce/IOM-Future-of-Nursing-Report-1
Campaign for Action. (2013, May 23). The Future of Nursing IOM Report. Retrieved from Campaign for Action: http://campaignforaction.org/resource/future-nursing-iom-report/
National Academy of Sciences. (2010). Free Summary: The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved September 02, 2016, from http://ffne.org/file_library/Summary%20of%20IOM%20Report%20on%20Future%20of%20Nursing%2010%2010.pdf
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2009). Unprecedented Initiative on the Future of Nursing Launched. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Retrieved September 01, 2016, from http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2009/07/robert-wood-johnson-foundation-institute-of-medicine-launch-unpr.html
The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine. (2010, October 05). The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Retrieved from The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine: http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2010/The-Future-of-Nursing-Leading-Change-Advancing-Health.aspx
