The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report researched and has designed a new plan for nursing with four key points that will encourage the profession to advance to the next level. These points include: Nurses should practice to the full extent of their training and education, seamless academic progression for nurses from one degree to the next, equality with other healthcare providers in redesigning health care, and lastly better collection of data and information for effective policy and planning in the workforce (CNN, 2010).
IOM’s recommendations calls each and every one of us as nurses to be more accountable and to help move nursing forward by doing our part in supporting change, growth, development, and education. IOM and Nursing Education Knowledge is the key to all knowing. If we are not educated people then we cannot positively contribute to society and continue to advance our people in a constructive direction. Registered Nurses (RN’s) are able to attain there notable degrees through various routes in hospitals, community colleges, or universities.
RN’s are valuable resources for nursing today and provide holistic, patient-centered care that concentrates on the social, mental, and spiritual needs of patients and their families. (Committee, 172) With this said, we still need more. We need a regime of nurses who have a stronger knowledge in basic patient care and nursing science such as Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN’s), we need master’s to help teach and grow these nurse’s and we need doctorates who can implement research and make the changes to healthcare and education for the future of nursing.
It is vital that the education system for nursing be streamlined to make it easier for nurses to want to go back to school, to be able to afford to go back to school, and have the accessibility such as online classes and work sponsored training so that we can continue to thrive and evolve in today’s advanced medicine. Change to Meet the IOM Goals Nursing is a profession that continues to grow in strength, numbers, and knowledge everyday leading to a stronger population of community nursing providers. Yet, we are still lacking the creditability and respect that our licenses have afforded us to have.
There are a wide number of skills that Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN’s) hold to help maintain and improve patient standards of health, if only they were allowed to function in the role as a primary caregiver as they are trained to do. APRN’s are able to see and treat patient’s, provide community health information including chronic disease teaching and management, and even prescribe medications, request testing and admit patients into the hospital within their scopes of practice (IOM, 2011 pg. 106).
These skills are valuable in getting healthcare to urban and rural communities that lack quality healthcare and medical doctors. Across the United States, however, regulations vary and prevent many APRN’s from practicing to the full extent of their license and forces APRN’s to continue to seek revision for their redefined scopes of practice (IOM, 2011 pg. 97). IOM and the Nurse’s Leading Role Healthcare is truly on the frontier of developing into a transformed, client focused, community based entity where the focus is on health management and education.
We are trying to educate the public on health and wellness before it becomes necessary for them to ever enter the doors of an acute care setting. Nurses are important to this role and will be expected to stand up and work together with physician’s and other healthcare providers to change policy, set new standards for care, and construct new ways for everyone to work together as equal partner’s. This is an opportunity for nurse’s to prove their existence and importance in not just providing care, but revolutionizing it.
Nurses are the individuals who know our patient’s the best. We know what they are thinking, feeling, saying, needing, wanting whether it is physically, mentally, socially, or spiritually. So it is only proper that we should take the place beside our fellow medical providers to prepare the way for our patient’s into the next generation of healthcare. We are our patient’s advocates, always have been and always will be. If we do not lead and embrace this position our patient’s will not have a voice in their quality of care.
Conclusion Overall, nursing is no different than back when Florence Nightingale began her voyage into nursing and made her mark as a pioneer. Again, as nurses, we are being called upon to evolve and make a change for our patients. I will do my part and continue to move forward with my education, standup in my community and become an active voice for those who cannot speak, and help lead healthcare through the 21st century.
With IOM’s four key messages and the support of entities such as the American Nurses Association, Constituent Member Associations, and the Organizational Affiliates nursing will move forward, with me right there in the middle of it. Reference Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine, Institute of Medicine. “Summary. ” (2011) The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://www. nap. edu/openbook. php? record_id=12956&page=172
Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine, Institute of Medicine. “Summary. ” (2011) The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://www. nap. edu/openbook. php? record_id=12956&page=106 The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Connecticut Nursing News [serial online]. December 2010. 83(4), 1&12 retrieved September 17, 2012 from http://library. gcu. edu:2048/login? url=http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=true&db=rzh&AN=2010996303&site=ehost-live&scope=site
