The aim of improving the healthcare services to the people has been a call for every nurse and health providers in the US. In the year 2008, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in conjuction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or the (RWJF) joined hands to come up with a report comprising of various recommendations developed with an aim of carefully planned actions of improving the future of nursing. They developed the action plan needed for assessing and transforming the nursing profession and therefore improve the healthcare services offered to the citizens of the US. The IOM reported that nurses have an important duty regarding positive impact in our current healthcare systems (IOM, 2011). This report named the future of nursing contained in it various recommendations bearing a positive change particularly in the future of nursing. As much as there were recommendations, the report also identified a couple of barriers that were limiting the abilities of our nurses in their profession to provide fully with the healthcare services. These barriers included a regulatory restriction on nursing practices, aging workforce, lack of workforce data, the limited capacity of the nursing education system, and finally fragmentation of healthcare. Those were just some of the barriers that were found to be hindering the nursing profession.
On the other hand, the recommendations offered by the IOM contained four main messages which were essential for all advanced practice nurses to focus on providing better services. Firstly, nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training. In the proposed document, there is a lot of focus on education for the nurses, and according to the IOM, they recommended for the nurses to have a lifelong continuation in education (IOM, 2011). Their expectation throughout the years up to 2020 is for the nurses holding a DNP to be doubled, as well as those with a baccalaureate degree to also increase to 80% by the year 2020. The second key message was that nurses were expected to have achieved high educational levels as well as training via improved educational systems which will be promoting academic progressions to the fullest. The 3 rd key message was that nurses must have a full partnership with physicians as well as other healthcare providers, in the aim of perfecting healthcare services in the US (Alexander, 2011). This will help in the mentoring process of other nurses along the way and also gain partnership beyond and other environs. The crucial 4th message developed in the IOM report is the planning effectively of the workforce and policy-making required during the collection of data and improved information infrastructure (Benner, 2012). This message is vital to the future of nursing in the sense that data collection and observation is done in the aim of determining the numbers and types of health professionals that are now employed, their roles and the place where they are employed.
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The report also contained eight recommendations which include; removing the barriers that are hindering nursing practices, expanding the chances for our nurses who want to lead and collaborate with others, implementing programs related to nursing such as residence program, those with a baccalaureate degree to increase to 80% by the year 2020, the nurses holding a DNP to be doubled by 2020, preparing and enabling nurses to lead and develop changes in the healthcare sector, engaging the nurses in a life time learning program and finally to build an infrastructure for collecting and analyzing the workforce data for the interprofessional healthcare (IOM, 2011).
Considering the above to be the recommendations outlined in the report, I would make sure that I improve my grade to secure my position as an advanced nurse regarding the above suggestions. Since the workforce will be enhanced, as an advanced nurse the most significant duty will be to make sure that I fit in the required educational background to utilize the advantages that are included in the report. In the aim of implementing the report, I will make sure that I advance my training experience to deliver exceptional services to the people.
These were all the recommendations proposed by the IOM to make the future of the nurses better and improve the healthcare services as well. The department of nursing is relevant as it plays a significant role in the delivering of healthcare services. By enhancing the nursing sector, the whole of the healthcare department is improved as well, and the services will be better.
References
Institute of Medicine (IOM). (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Alexander, M. Supporting the future of nursing. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 2 (2), 3.
Benner, P. (2012). Educating nurses: A call for radical transformation. Journal of Nursing Education, 51 (4):183-184. doi: https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20120402-01
