Impact of the RWJ IOM report in New York State
The role that nurses play in ensuring that the needs of patients have been satisfactorily addressed cannot be understated. These are the individuals ensure that only the best in terms of care, medically, spiritually; mentally ands physically has been achieved. It is important that workable strategies be put in place to assist in achieving these outcomes on patients. A key element that has to be taken into consideration is by ensuring that customized form of care is created to address the needs of each specific patient. To oversee such an objective, nurses play a significant role in improving the healthcare delivery process consequently resulting to satisfied patients. According to the Institute of Medicine (2011), nurses play a significant role in matters regarding the provision of specialized care, addressing technicalities presented by different patient healthcare needs, closing the existing gap of access to care, and finally see to it that the services which they provide to patients are appreciated. Furthermore, issues related to the reduction of rates of infection, clinical errors, and in overseeing a smooth transition of the patient from the hospital back to the community. Nurses have been observed to play crucial roles in boosting the services offered in healthcare settings, community and public hospitals, long-term care settings and retail health centers.
Section 1
The IOM proposal created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) was born out of the need for boosting nursing practices, education and development as a way of ensuring that nurses across the country are in a position to work to their full capabilities. The key mandate of this proposal was ensuring that any challenges which nurses go through in the care provision process are adequately addressed such that at the end of the day the care they provide to patients will be of high quality (Institute of Medicine, 2011). The changes in terms of nursing care would be centered on overseeing institutional changes at the state and federal levels. The RWJF was given the task of ensuring that the IOM recommendations would be implemented using a workable action plan. The main objectives of this report are targeted at having a change of the nursing education system which will result in nursing colleges producing enough care providers who will meet the ever increasing patient needs, addressing the challenges brought about by nursing shortages, and finally focus on developing nurses who can provide care specialized care to different clusters of patients in varied hospitals.
Section 2
The policy framework in place right now poses a great challenge in regards to nursing practice in the country both at the state and the federal level. The current undesirable characteristics of the nation’s healthcare system and specifically healthcare providers encountering problems transitioning from school to work, a disjointed healthcare system and rising turn over rates on the side of nurses has been seen to pull back the efforts being put in taking care of the challenges facing healthcare system in the country (Institute of Medicine, 2011). These challenges have led to care providers not realizing their full potential as is expected of their profession. In addressing these challenges, the IOM report has been centered on focusing on the equity principle which will see to it that patients are able to receive care from wherever these nurses will be located as at a particular time. Additionally, in line with ensuring that care providers provide their services to their full extent, the IOM report recommends that nursing residency plans be created to ensure that care providers can improve their skills in line with patient care (Fineberg & Lavizzo-Mourey, 2013). These strategies have been critical in addressing the problem of nursing turn over.
The role of the IOM report in regards to nursing education
The current shortage of nurses in the country poses a great challenge in regards to patients being able to receive a form of care which satisfactorily addresses their needs. Thus, it is imperative that more nurses join the workforce to ensure that patients are able to emerge with positive outcomes from the care which they receive (Fineberg & Lavizzo-Mourey, 2013). Increasing the number of care providers in the country will be a significant step towards addressing the challenges brought about by nurse shortage. According to the IOM report, therefore, it is essential that more nurses acquire the appropriate knowledge which will be crucial in ensuring boosted levels of care on patients. The report further recommends that the current nursing education is supposed to take care of the LPN, ADN, BSN and MSN clusters of nursing education. Furthermore, refresher courses are required to boost the expertise of the nurses while they provide their services to patients (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Finally, the use of technology in nursing education has been emphasized by the report to make sure that nurses are able to stay up to date regarding the changes taking place in the nursing profession countrywide.
The role of the IOM report in regards to nursing workforce development
Every individual strives to achieve the goal of self actualization in regards to their professional lives. Similarly, the profession of nursing provides an opportunity for individuals to realize this professional goal. To this effect, therefore, it is important that leadership opportunities be provided to nurses as they go up the professional ladder. The IOM Future of Nursing Report therefore reports that there is the need for this concept to be given the required attention in regards to workforce development since it assists in the implementation phase of development plans, creating an adjustment in regards to the care provision technique, and taking note of one’s development journey. The overall objective of such a move is directed towards ensuring high quality care being given to patients. As such, it is vital that mentorship and leadership programs be included at all levels of care provision by nurses to see to it that these nurses are able to achieve the objective of workforce development in addition to professional development.
Section 3
The task of making sure that reforms in the care provision process are put into action lays squarely on the roles which state based action coalitions perform. These strategies are targeted at improving the process of care provision at the state level (Cramer et al., 2013). To achieve this objective, these coalitions involve in the identification of models which can be employed in boosting the existing legislative frameworks, determine the requirements regarding nursing research, identify the best nursing practices, and taking into account all the milestones achieved by the nurses concerning patient care. in regards to advancing the IOM Future of Nursing campaign objectives, these state based coalitions have got the responsibility of ensuring that the stakeholders involve in the required processes, set objectives which can be achieved, look for funding, having the stakeholders get involved in the process, providing education to policy makers, and advancing the IOM agenda (Cramer et al., 2013).
The New York state action coalition has been at the forefront in ensuring that the recommendations which have been brought forward by IOM report are implemented. This objective has been achieved by having in place stakeholders who are keen in advancing this agenda. The first initiative that this state action coalition has been vocal about is making sure that there is diversity in regards to the nursing students as a way of meeting the requirements of the population (NYSAC, 2016). Such a move is beneficial to the nursing profession since it ensures that patients coming from diverse cultural backgrounds are able to receive holistic care. Secondly, the group has been vocal about the removal of barriers which prevent nurses from achieving their full potential. This initiative is crucial to the nursing profession since it aims at removing the mandatory nurse-physician collaboration thus providing care providers with an opportunity to provide services which are in line with their full training and education (Nurse.com News, 2015). A major challenge to the achievement of these goals however is internal politics amongst the key stakeholders which results in slow implementation process. Solving this problem will require that a sense of benevolence is nurtured amongst the stakeholders to see to it that these objectives are achieved.
References
Cramer, M. E., Lazure, L., Morris, K. J., Valerio, M., & Morris, R. (2013). Conceptual models to guide best practices in organization and development of State Action Coalitions. Nursing outlook, 61(2), 70-77.
Fineberg, H. V., & Lavizzo-Mourey, R. (2013). The future of nursing: A look back at the landmark IOM report.
Nurse.com News. (2015). New York action coalition makes progress on IOM recommendations | Nurse.com News. Retrieved from https://news.nurse.com/2012/01/09/new-york-action-coalition-makes-progress-on-iom-recommendations/
NYSAC. (2016). NYS Action Coalition, Future of Nursing Action Coalition, NYSAC,. Retrieved from http://www.nysactioncoalition.com/
