What Is The Future Of Nursing

The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health
The nursing profession is considered as the largest sector of the health care workforce in the United States given its membership of more than 3 million individuals. Since the establishment of the Medicare and Medicaid programs during the 1960s, the most sweeping health care legislation has been the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Redman, Pressler, Furspan & Potempa, 2015). Nurses can therefore play an important role in advancing patient care to the dynamic health care setting and some of them are evaluated in the 2010 report by the Institute of Medicine, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (Masters, 2015). The report offers recommendations on key areas of nursing such as

The report recognizes the numerous barriers preventing nurses from responding effectively to the rapid dynamism of both the health care setting and system and suggest ways of overcoming these barriers to better position nurses in leading change and advancing health (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Some of these barriers include regulatory and policy barriers as well as high turnover rates among nurses. Some states have different laws that regulate the scope of nursing practice. IOM’s report maintains that similar legislations are politically instigated and do not promote nursing education or improve patient safety. In addition, it regards these limits on the scope of nursing practice as an impediment to effective competition in the healthcare market and consequently recommends the intervention of the Federal Trade Commission in absorbing range of competent and cost-effective nurse practitioners (Institute of Medicine, 2011).In this regard, it recommends the establishment of nurse residency programs which will help nursing graduates in acquiring the skills and knowledge required in delivering quality and safe care that conforms to the established standard of nursing

The report recognizes the significance of cultivating and promoting leaders in nursing and how it helps nurses in improving health care and advancing their profession. The nurses’ roles as leaders require them to participate as full partners in healthcare redesigning efforts, exhibit accountability for their contribution in enhancing good quality care as well as to collaborate with other healthcare professional (Masters, 2015). “Nurses can assume leadership roles in the area of health policy by participating in decision-making and getting involved in health care reform efforts and implementation” (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Besides, nurses can be proactive participants of advisory boards responsible for making policy decisions regarding the advancement of health systems and improvement of patient care. In order to increase the competency of nurses in assuming these roles of leadership, the IOM report recommends that programs of nursing education should incorporate leadership competencies in their curriculum (Institute of Medicine,