Introduction
Professional nurses play essential roles in providing quality health care to the people. Different nurse organizations are developing strategies as to how nursing profession can significantly contribute to the success of every campaign towards a better future of nurses as professionals. The purpose of this study is to discuss the goals of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in relation to the future of nursing, which influenced the creation of Institute of medicine (IOM) report about the nursing’s future. Such report is important in relation to nursing practice, education, and even on the workforce development. The study will also discuss the state-based coalitions’ goal to continuously improve the nursing profession by addressing the issues and strengthening the nursing using multiple fronts. Although there were identified barriers against the campaign in promoting a healthier life of all Americans, the recommendations provided by the IOM report are essential for continuous improvement of such profession towards a better future of nursing across the country.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s initiative
There were many issues that the nursing profession was facing. In order to identify and fully understand these issues, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or RWJF and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) developed a new initiative that will address such issues and the future of nursing (RWJF, 2009). The works involves the committee created a group of experts who will identify the best strategies. These will increase the access, reduce costs, and improve the quality of healthcare through the participation of nurse leaders as well as the application of nursing care practices. The RWJF believes that in order to address the challenges and issues that the health care system is facing, there must be some approaches that will address the issues, which the nursing profession also faces. Generally, the work of the foundation is to address the problem, which will start internally in order for nurses to contribute to the improvement of the overall health care system in the country. According to the Institute of Medicine (2011), the RWJF’s initiative on the future of nursing committee was tasked to produce a report that contains various recommendations about an action-oriented plan for the improvement of nursing’s future. Such plan also includes changes in institutional and public policies across all government levels.
On the Institute of Medicine’s part, the foundation committee’s recommendations led to the creation of what is now known as the IOM report. Furthermore, the report’s recommendations, including its key messages holds various potentials in terms of creating more changes in the health care environment, which constantly evolves and integrates new practices towards the patient care that are based on best evidence (Howard & Papa, 2012). The key messages of the report states that the nurses must practice using the full range of their training and education, to which they must obtain such skills through improved nursing education system. In that way the nursing professionals will have a continuous academic progression. This is in relation to Campaign for Action’s areas of work, which state that nursing professionals should be prepared to face the increasing challenges of health care across all settings (campaignforaction.org). Moreover, the key message of the report states that nurses must be partners other health care professionals, most especially, to become partners of physicians in terms of the development of new health care designs across the country. This approach will not only potentially improve the health care system, but it will also enable nurses to apply their professional skills outside the area where they usually conduct their duties as professional nurses.
Lastly, the IOM report’s key messages also emphasizes the essence of efficient planning of the workforce as well as policymaking. It was explained that these two actions must be created using an improved data gathering using better information infrastructure (Howard & Papa, 2012). However, the report that IOM has created did not only contain key messages that that will help in the development of better future for nursing. There were eight specific recommendations based on the key messages provided in the IOM report. According to Howard and Papa (2012), some of the recommendations include the implementation of 1) nurse residency programs, 2) to increase the nurses’ proportion with baccalaureate degree by year 2020, and 3) to ensure that nurses are engaged in constant learning. On the other hand, Purvis et al (2012) added that the other recommendations include 4) the removal of barriers on the nurses’ scope of practice, 5) expansion of opportunities in relation to improvement efforts, 6) doubling of nurses with doctorates by year 2020, 7) to prepare nurses in leading the change towards advance health, and 8) building infrastructure that will improve the collection as well as the analysis of workforce data.
Importance of IOM’s Future of Nursing
Nursing Practice – The importance of the IOM recommendations to the nursing practice shows that nurses should be allowed to practice their profession to the full extent of their training and education (campaignforaction.org). This recommendation is one of the significant elements that will give way to an increased access of the people to affordable and high-quality health care services. This recommendation will also help the individuals who are located in the remote, rural areas, where health care services is more needed. In this case, the nursing professional will also be able to provide service to the underserved members of the community due to the removal of barriers
Nursing Education – The IOM’s recommendation is important to the transformation of nursing education through improved system. According to the Campaign for Action, the complexity of health care needs across all settings requires an extended knowledge (campaignforaction.org). Therefore, the education system must be transformed in order to guide the nurse students as well as the nurse practitioners through constant learning. Thus, an improved education will also increase the nurses’ capabilities in relation to advanced technology and complex care.
Nursing Workforce Development – The recommendation was set to provide an efficient planning of workforce, which can be achieved through better data gathering. Workforce development aims to address the possible shortage of nurses based on the projected indicators. According to Rosseter (2014), there is a forecast showing that there could be a shortage of professional nurses in the country, which may happen between 2009 and 2030. Therefore, IOM’s recommendation impacts the workforce development for nurses in order to address the possible shortage as early as possible. Thus, it enables the workforce development to adopt a more diverse health workforce through creation of appropriate policies both on national and state levels.
The Role of State-Based Action Coalition
The role of the state-based action coalition is to promote the people’s health through professional nursing by working with the state’s education, health, and business including the leaders. It is being led by nurses and other business partners who both aim to create a transformed health care. To achieve its goals, the coalition works with every levels of the community to build a healthier population. One of the member states is New York, which leads two initiatives, such as the fostering of inter-professional teamwork in health care and improving the nursing education (campaignforaction.org). These initiatives advance the nursing profession by improving the nurses’ skills as they are supported by other professionals. Thus, a transformed nursing education enables the nursing professionals to become more competitive through application of earned knowledge.
On the other hand, one of the identified barriers to advancement is the existing laws that prevent nurses in practicing their profession to the full extent of what they have learned from training and education. In order to prevent such barrier, nurse must sign a certain collaborative contract with a physician. However, if the physician will no longer be in practice, the nurse should also stop seeing the patients. In order to continue the nursing practice, the nurse must look for another physician whom the nurse can collaborate with.
References
Collecting Nursing Workforce Data | Campaign for Action. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://campaignforaction.org/issue/collecting-workforce-data/
The Future of Nursing New York State Action Coalition | Campaign for Action. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://campaignforaction.org/state/new-york/
Howard, P. K., & Papa, A. (2012). Future-of-Nursing Report: The Impact on Emergency Nursing. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 38(6), 549-552. doi:10.1016/j.jen.2012.08.001
Improving Access to Care - Campaign for Action | Campaign for Action. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://campaignforaction.org/issue/improving-access-to-care/
Purvis, S., Brown, E., Chan, G. K., Dresser, S., Fulton, J. S., Koyama, K., Tracy, M. (2012). Clinical Nurse Specialist. NACNS, 26(4), 222-224. doi:10.1097/NUR.0b013e31825aec96
Rosseter, R. J. (2014). Nursing Shortage Fact Sheet. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Transforming Nursing Education - Campaign for Action | Campaign for Action. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://campaignforaction.org/issue/transforming-nursing-education/
Unprecedented Initiative on the Future of Nursing Launched - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2009, 1). Retrieved from http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2009/07/robert-wood-johnson-foundation-institute-of-medicine-launch-unpr.html
