NUR 302 Concepts In Nursing

Introduction

The United States of America has strived to transform its healthcare systems to offer affordable, seamless, quality care which is easily accessible to all the people in the country, evidence-based, patient-centered and leads to enhanced outcomes of health. The country is needed to remodel various facets and aspects of its healthcare system to achieve this goal. The nursing profession is one area which needs transformation as it is one of the largest segments of the healthcare workforce (McNeal, 2012). In this paper I will reflect on the institute of medicine report, the future of nursing: leading change, advancing health. The refection is a vigorous evaluation of the roles, education, and responsibilities of nurses and how it should be changed to suit and meet the needs of the aging population, the progressively diverse population as well as responding to the intricate dynamic healthcare system. The recommendations in the IOM report focus on the vital intersection between the readiness of the healthcare workforce and health needs of the people across all the lifespan.

The work of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing and IOM

The work of the committee and the Institute of Medicine was to come up with various recommendation and programs needed to transform healthcare systems in the country. The nursing profession is one of the largest segments in the healthcare systems, and for it to serve the population more prudently, it needs to be reformed.

IOM Report recommendations and importance

IOM report states that the nursing profession is the largest segment of the United States of America healthcare workforce. Thus, nursing represents the biggest sector of the healthcare system workforce having more than 3.4 million registered nurses in the country. The report states that nurses must assist and respect the decisions, choices, and care for the patients in the ever-dynamic healthcare settings. It is therefore, very prudent for nurses to be prepared as well as become aware of the various transformations which are taking place around them especially in the healthcare setting and the plans which put them at the core of the future (Goes, Savage & Friedman, 2012; Friedman, Savage & Goes, 2013). According to the report, there are numerous available residency programs in academic settings and acute care healthcare organizations. The concept of residency should be used in the community-based environment. Education transformation has been given a key space in the IOM report. In the report, it is required that nurses acquire top-level training and education to operate in the dynamic healthcare structure. It is important for nurses to advance training and education without experiencing hardships and difficulties (Hassmiller & Combes, 2012). Opportunities to enhance education from the associate degree in nursing, licensed practice in nursing or baccalaureate science in nursing, as well as the advanced degrees, should be made available to all the nurses.

The report also recommends an enhanced lifelong and interprofessional learning for nurses as it is extremely vital for nurses in the current healthcare settings. The committee of IOM recommended that all nursing organizations, professional societies as well as education programs, and the individual nurses made lifelong and interprofessional learning such and continued learning programs so that they can be ever ready in the present evolving healthcare settings (Shaffer, Davis, To Dutka & Richardson, 2014). The report also recommends a diversity in the healthcare workforce which should be made a priority by all the stakeholders in the healthcare systems. The committee recommends the future of the nursing; campaign for action to emphasize and focus on the retention and recruitment of the various diverse nursing workforce. The IOM committee also recommended expansion of the opportunities and efforts for inter- and trans-professional collaboration as well as leadership enhancement for nurses (Savage, Fottler & Blair, 2011).

It was recommended that opportunities for promoting and enhancing interprofessional collaboration for nurses to implement, diffuse and design collaborative activities in delivery and care as well as the interdisciplinary activities which center on leadership. Nurses are required to communicate and interact with a more and wider diverse audience and people to acquire wide range support for objectives of the campaign. The last recommendation by the IOM committee was to enhance nursing workforce collection of data. The committee members recommended that enhanced workforce data collection is needed and that data collection should focus on the need for collaboration regarding the collection as well as analysis of data.

Florida Action Coalition

The Florida Action Coalition was formed in 2011 with the aim of providing leadership in developing the nursing profession to ensure that people have access to effective, high-quality healthcare (Grants to support state action coalitions, 2014). The vision of the coalition is to ensure that the people have access to effective safe and quality healthcare, patient-centered care in a working healthcare system, and in which all the nurses engage as vital partners in realizing the vision. Florida has made numerous strides in building a diverse workforce. The county has a working nursing workforce of about 83% of nurses who are whites, and 90% of the nurses are female (Twelve new state action coalitions, 2012). That workforce does not represent a diverse picture, and this is not the case in Florida state. Dr. Winifred, director of advocacy and consumer affairs, stated that the intervention of the state is to establish a healthcare system which is more representative of all the groups they serve. Since nurses are the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, it is prudent that they mirror the diversity of all people that they work to protect. Florida’s action coalition has brought together various diverse nurses in their workforce. They have also adopted and implemented the diversity action plan.  

Florida action coalition has promoted and enhanced education and training of nurses in the state. For instance, the Florida blue foundation in partnership with the Florida action coalition sponsored nurse leaders between 2016 and 2018 (Nursing and the Future of Health Care: Florida Action Coalition, 2011). The project aimed to create nurses as leaders in the state to promote health and nursing policy (Knowlton & Whichello, 2018). The coalition has also partnered with other stakeholders like the universities, government, businesses, and other agencies to promote practice, leadership, and education. The partnership is vital in promoting and developing strategies needed to strengthen the nursing profession.

Conclusion

IOM report is one of the important reports in the nursing sector since it offers various recommendations needed in the transformation of the healthcare system. The recommendations which stipulates various educative programs are seen as championing for a healthcare workforce who will be up to date with the ever-dynamic healthcare settings.  

References

Friedman, L. H., Savage, G. T., & Goes, J. (2013). Annual Review of Health Care Management: Revisiting the Evolution of Health Systems Organization. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 

Goes, J., Savage, G. T., & Friedman, L. H. (2012). Annual Review of Health Care Management: Strategy and Policy Perspectives on Reforming Health Systems. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 

Grants to support state action coalitions. (2014). American Nurse, 46(1), 5. 

Hassmiller, S., & Combes, J. (2012). Nurse Leaders in the Boardroom: A Fitting Choice. Journal of Healthcare Management, 57(1), 8–11. https://doi.org/10.1097/00115514-201201000-00003

Knowlton, M., & Whichello, R. (2018). Attention Health Care Leaders: Literature Review Deems Baccalaureate Nurses Improve Patient Outcomes. Nursing Education Perspectives (Wolters Kluwer Health), 39(4), E2–E6. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000303

McNeal, G. J. (2012). The IOM Report on the Future of Nursing: One Year Later. ABNF Journal, 23(1), 3. 

Nursing and the Future of Health Care: Florida Action Coalition. (2011). Florida Nurse, 59(3), 21. 

Savage, G. T., Fottler, M. D., & Blair, J. D. (2011). Biennial Review of Health Care Management. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Shaffer, F. A., Davis, C. R., To Dutka, J., & Richardson, D. R. (2014). The Future of Nursing: Domestic Agenda, Global Implications. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 25(4), 388–394. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659614523474

Twelve new state action coalitions. (2012). American Nurse, 44(2), 5–11