Analyzing the Report on the Future of Nursing - Essay Example

? IOM Report: The Future of Nursing, Leading Change, Advancing Health The ratification of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the Congress has given the United States the probability to develop its healthcare system. One of the important actions take is the transformation of the nursing profession, which is the largest of the healthcare workforce. Being the largest, nursing has the potential to contribute to the realization of a transformed healthcare system (Benner et al, 2009). In this report, four key messages were discussed that could transform the nursing profession as well as the entire health care provision. The first message explains that nurses should exercise to the full degree of their education and training in administering their services. Research shows that education and training of healthcare staff, in this case nurse is the key to raising standards (Nolan et al, 2008). Enactment on ACA has changed the roles of healthcare workers, particularly those of nurses. Presence of new healthcare structures has provided opportunities for new roles. As proposed by the committee, changes in the nurses’ tasks should be evaluated against their capacity to support the provision of accessible healthcare to all. This ability can only be realized if nurses execute their services fully based on their education and training. Of importance is that nurses should be permitted to seek improvements and redesigned efforts to manage with the changes of an improving health care system. The education and training of nurses sustain their ability to tender a wider range of services safely and effectively. And nurses must react to the challenge, reinventing themselves as needed in a fast evolving health care system. This also ensures that nurses contribute effectively to healthcare provision (Nolan et al, 2008). One of the roadblocks to effective practice by nurses is the inability to transition from school to the work environment. To counter this, residency programs should be available to ease the transition to the practice thereby developing a competent work force. Further training is required in the field of technological literacy, good communication skills and adaptation skills to a transforming healthcare system (Jones and Thomsons, 2008). As seen education and training of nurses enhances their ability to offer a wide range of services safely and effectively. Secondly, Nurses should strive to get high levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes academic and professional excellence. Changes in the healthcare system will require transformation of education provided to nurses both before and after licensing. Organizations concerned with certifying the nursing profession must establish thorough knowledge of clinical skills, managerial competencies, and professional advancement at all levels. Mandated skills, competencies, and professional growth milestones must be updated on a timelier basis to keep pace with the swiftly changing demands of health care (IOM, 2010). According to the report, there is a need to increase the number of nurses with a BSN from 50% to 80%.This increase will not only meet the demand for nurses competent for higher practice position but will supply a work force with transferable skills such as leadership, community care and health policy. The nursing profession needs to pursue higher education such as doctorates so as to prepare them to take up new roles such as faculty and research positions (IOM, 2010). The nursing profession should center on enduring learning that will increase the levels of competency on the part of all nurses. Education ought to be concrete, in particular regarding management of difficult condition and emphasis on coordinating with other healthcare professions. Programs for ongoing and graduate education must support the shift to an outlook that rewards flexibility. In addition, the curriculum at many nursing schools, which stresses on preparing students for employment in the acute care setting, requires rethinking (Benner et al., 2009). Thirdly, Nurses should enter in to full partnership, with physicians and other health professionals; in reorganizing health care in the United States .Strong leadership is a must in the effort of developing a better health care system. For the longest time, nursing has always been seen as lesser profession when compared to other healthcare professions, despite their invaluable services. Sadly this misplaced notion has affected the nurses themselves as majority of nurses don’t see themselves as leaders. For their impact to be felt in healthcare transformation, nurses must assume leadership in important areas of design, implementation, evaluation and advocacy for change. In respect to nursing, the preferred leadership style is one that involves other healthcare professions as allies with mutual respect and collaboration. This style has improved patient outcomes, reduced medical errors as well as staff turnover. As beneficial as this collaboration effort might be, inter-professional collaborations is hard to achieve. This style of leadership is an all inclusive process that requires commitment from patients, colleagues, subordinates and the executive. It therefore goes without saying that the different healthcare professions must collaborate and hold each other answerable in their quest to improve quality and reduce unnecessary adverse events and medical errors (Nolan et al 2008). Nurse need to acquire two sets critical competencies. One needs to be universal i.e. as the basis for leadership such as knowledge of the healthcare system, ethics, and foundations for quality and safety improvements. Specific competencies are directed towards a said context, time and place. These consist of learning how to be full partners in a team with members from various professions, which consider themselves responsible for actions taken. Other competencies are in areas of economics and financing policy. Nurses must comprehend that their leadership is as key to providing quality care as is their technical capacity to deliver care at the bedside in a safe and effective approach. Lastly, is viable workforce planning where policy makers require better data collection and improved information resources to help in managing the workplace. A large amount of data lacks on the number and types of health care professionals, where they are employed and their roles. Having data is a pivotal step in development of accurate models for workforce capacity projection. Operative workforce design and strategy making are products of better data collection and advanced information infrastructure. For healthcare to be transformed there must be dependable and satisfactory data on workforce supply and demand, currently and future and across the health professionals (Benner et at, 2009). There should be an assessment of the data and methods needed to develop correct predictions of anticipated work force requirements and management of the compilation of data on health care workforce. Tools for collection and analysis of workforce data are a crucial factor if the healthcare is to be transformed. The committee has made eight recommendations that aimed at transforming the nursing practice. a) Removing Scope Of Practice Barrier, for Practicing Nurses to Be Able To Apply As Their Education And Training Allows Nurses should be permitted to spread out their roles to admission of patient’s assessment, certification of patients for admission to home health care services and admission to hospice and skilled nursing facilities b) Increase Opportunities For Nurses To Guide And Distribute Collaborative Improvement Efforts Nurses are an integral part of the healthcare system and as such they should be given avenues to work as partners with other healthcare professional such as physicians and pharmacists to ensure quality and safety in healthcare deliverance. They should have a voice in carrying out research, redesigning and improving the healthcare system (IOM, 2010). c) Initiate Nurse Residency Programs To Ensure That Nurses Are Able To Smoothly Transition From School To Practice This can be carried out by state boards of nursing, accrediting bodies, the federal government and health care organization advocating for the institutionalization of nursing residency programs. This will in turn bring forth a more competent workforce to effectively deal with matters (Jones and Thompson, 2008). d) Increase The Percentage Of Nursing Practitioners With A Baccalaureate Degree To 80 Percent By 2020 This is because a highly knowledgeable nursing work force increases their scope as well as the quality of their work. As noted in the IOM report, the advantages include ensuring that the next generation of nurses will master more than basic knowledge of patient care, provide a stronger establishment for the extension of nursing science and impart tools that nurses need to be effective revolutionary agents as well as acclimatize to evolving models of care. e) Increase The Number Of Nurses With A Doctorate By Twice The Current Amount By 2020 This is to prepare nurses to assume responsibilities in higher practice, leadership, research and teaching. This is as to meet the demand for research in nursing education and nursing science as well as increase diversity in nursing. This will also see the nursing profession mature and compete with other mainstream careers in health care (IOM, 2010). f) Ensure That Nurses Engage In Permanent Education To Gain Proficiencies As Well As Stay Current With The Evolving Healthcare System This is because nursing depend increasingly methodological and complex knowledge. Continuing competencies allows learning at both individual and collaborative team level that ensures all health workers engage in a process of lifetime education aimed at improving the services given to patients (IOM, 2010). g) The Recommendations Have Also Provided For Preparing And Enabling Nurses To Lead Change In The Healthcare Sector To Advance Health By partnering with other professionals in healthcare, nursing should acquire leadership skills. As nurses serve as patient advocates, they are continuously involved in decision making on improving the delivery of care. Nurses should be active in health policy decisions making, be engaged in execution efforts and serve actively on committees on advancing health systems to improve patient care (IOM, 2010). h) Build An Infrastructure For The Collection And Analysis Of Inter-Professional Health Care Workforce Data This can be through the efforts of the National Health Care Workforce Commission with oversight from the Government Accountability Office and Health Resources. This data can be used to access healthcare workforce needs by demography factors, abilities and geographic distribution. This establishes regional targets and plans for correctly increasing the supply of health professionals and ensures that the Workforce Commission membership includes adequate nursing expertise. In my opinion, the publics and policy makers perception of nursing is bound to change from the role of execution to a policy maker’s role. This report has created avenues for nurses to demand proactive roles in teams that foster change in healthcare systems. More nurses are likely to pursue higher education up to doctorates in the hopes of creating diversity in their roles as well as the profession itself. The nursing profession will continue to evolve. The role of nurse in providing healthcare cannot be ignored. Nursing education policy has to change to allow nurses to practice fully according to their skills, level of their education and areas of expertise. These changes will ensure that the future workforce in an appropriately educated in readiness for role expansion and changing population requirements. References Benner, P., M. Sutphen, V. Leonard, and L. Day. (2009). Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2010. The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved on April 24, 2012 from: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12956&page=215 on April 24, 2012 Jones, C., Havens, S., and Thompson, P. A. (2008). Chief Nursing Officer Retention and Turnover: A Crisis Brewing? Results of a National Survey. Journal of Healthcare Management 53(2):89-105. Nolan. M. et al. (2008).The Role of Education and Training in Achieving Change in Care Homes. Journal of Research in Nursing. Read More