The work of the Robert Wood Foundation Committee Initiative that led to the IOM report
The need to transform the healthcare system by enhancing patient choice and patient-centered healthcare was the drive behind Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that led to reforms within the healthcare system. The foundation’s initiative is to enhance affordable healthcare for all and to get rid of healthcare issues within the country. The foundations partnered with other organizations to come up with a solution within the healthcare system that could enhance positive changes within the field ( Sullivan, 2018). His initiative was meant to enhance progress in nursing practice by providing support to the action coalitions that work to ensure the implementation of IMO recommendations. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided the necessary support to the states for them to run healthcare systems that have an educated and diverse workforce that would provide quality and affordable healthcare to patients. The foundation’s drive was to ensure that American citizens could access the necessary healthcare services, and nurses are capable of providing quality healthcare to patients. The committee brought a change to the role of nurses and the general healthcare environment. It meant to enhance changes in nursing education, training and practice that could make a better future for the profession.
The four key messages that structure the IOM report
The four key messages that structure the IOM report address the need to transform the nursing profession in practice, education, training leadership and nursing workforce development.
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Practice
The report advocates for nursing professionals to be in a position to practice to the full extent of their educational qualifications. This would ensure that all citizens can access the required healthcare services, and nurses use their maximum potential in providing medical services. Patients should be able to choose a range of healthcare providers from APRNs so that they can get the best medical services. Nurses should be able to provide healthcare services away from hospitals as the future of healthcare is most likely to enhanced home-based medical care.
Education and Training
There is a need to transform the nursing education system to enhance a system that provides nurses the necessary tools that would help in improving patient care standards. This would enable healthcare practitioners to quality and safe healthcare services while still preserving the ethics and integrity found in the elements of nursing training. The aspect of improving the nursing education system was a necessary step in the implementation of IOM to produce professional nurses that can deliver quality healthcare services in all settings of the healthcare practice. Nursing is a practice that undergoes gradual changes, and the traditional way in which nurses were trained is inadequate to deliver quality care in the current generation. Nursing colleges should be able to expand their research and knowledge to produce nurses that have the required knowledge to provide healthcare services in complex systems. Nurse at all levels should be allowed to pursue further education. The nursing training system should enable nurses to deal with complex medical situations and be flexible enough to adopt new changes in technology and the education system (Battié, 2013, p. 227).
Leadership and nursing workforce development
The need to transform leadership in nursing requires for nurses to work together with doctors and other healthcare providers in enhancing positive changes within the healthcare profession. Most nurses kick start their career without preparing for leadership skills. Nurses are required to acquire adequate leadership skills to transform the healthcare system. Transformation in nursing leadership would help nurses to be more adoptive and get ready to take up leadership roles (Veenema, 2016, p. 187). Nurses should be open to adjusting to policy changes, and they should be allowed to be part of the decision-making committee in healthcare departments. They should be allowed to participate in leadership and take part in policy decision making initiatives to enhance effective patient care. If nurses work with physicians as partners, it would be possible for healthcare professionals to hold each other accountable for improving healthcare services.
Role of state-based action coalition
The state-based action coalitions are put in place to make advancements in the future of nursing. They consist of stakeholders that enhance change at all levels within the country. State-based action coalitions set goals that are clearly defined and align with the recommendations outlined within the IOM report. They form and mobilize stakeholders that come from different sectors to enhance action. They also have an additional role in educating policymakers and other decision-makers, and they engage volunteers who can fund projects for action coalition efforts. Policymakers are well known for their effort to campaign for action by the use of any outlets, including the media. They work towards implementing and advancing the most important recommendations within the IOM report.
Initiatives
Two initiatives spearheaded by the state coalition are to increase the number of nurses BSN in the state and to removing any barriers in the nursing practice.
The former initiative was to ensure that nurses became qualified enough with adequate skills, and they were capable of taking part in the decision-making process. This is meant to improve patient care and the nursing profession in general.
Removing barriers in the scope of nursing practice by the state-based action coalition in California ensures that nurses get empowerment so that they can provide quality services to the best of their practice according to the training they undertook. It is an initiative that has enabled nurses to demonstrate the acquired skills that ensure that all patients have access to quality healthcare services. Moreover, the initiative enhances advancements in nursing by enabling all citizens within the state to access quality healthcare services.
Barriers in the Nursing Profession
The main barrier that exists in the nursing profession is the inadequate funding for nursing students who are willing to pursue advanced education within the practice. This barrier prevents nurses form improving patient care due to the lack of the additional knowledge and techniques taught in higher education on how to care for patients (Joseph, 2019). Nurses who fail to advance their education miss on experience, and therefore, it becomes a challenge for them to identify problems in healthcare and to conduct interventions that are based on research. To overcome this challenge, training colleges for nursing students should support the students by providing them with affordable loans so that they get equal opportunities to advance their education to higher levels.
The scope of practice restrictions is another barrier within the nursing profession. The rules that have been put in place that dictate what nursing practitioners are allowed to do limit the ability of nurses to maximize their ability to provide quality healthcare. The restrictions affect nursing practice and are not necessary. Most nurses can provide primary care that involves preventive care and the care of chronic illness. Well trained nurses that have undergone advanced training are capable of taking care of intense tasks that include providing medicine prescriptions. Nursing practitioners are cable of providing effective patient care that is I accordance with the care provided by physicians.
Nursing advocates in the state can overcome this barrier by allowing nursing practitioners to provide services that are according to their qualifications instead of getting restricted to specific services. Nurses should as well be interviewed and allowed to give an outline of what they are best at. This would give them a chance to provide services to their best level of expertise.
References
Battié, R. N. (2013). The IOM report on the future of nursing: what perioperative nurses need to know. AORN Journal , 98 (3), 227-234.
Joseph, M. (2019). Implementation of IOM Future of Nursing Report. Retrieved from https://thenursingace.com/implementation-of-iom-future-of-nursing-report/
Sullivan. T. (2018). Institute of Medicine Report-The The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Retrieved from https://www.policymed.com/2011/02/institute-of-medicine-report-the-future-of-nursing-leading-change-advancing-health.html
Veenema, T. G., Griffin, A., Gable, A. R., MacIntyre, L., Simons, R. N., Couig, M. P., ... & Larson, E. (2016). Nurses as leaders in disaster preparedness and response—a call to action. Journal of Nursing Scholarship , 48 (2), 187-200.
