The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health Essay

Introduction

The report by Institute of Medicine (IOM) gives the outline on how the responsibilities, roles, and education of nurses have to be adjusted to satisfy the increased demand of quality healthcare practices by people of the United States of America (IOM 2010). Nurses are recorded to be more than three million in number. This makes the profession to have the largest number of workforce in the healthcare industry (Buerhaus et al., 2009). Nurses are tasked with maintaining professional standards of care to the patients including the follow-up activities. Affordable Care Act (ACA) envisioned improvement of safety of care; hence, the nurses in collaboration with other healthcare professionals contribute to the realization of the goals by ACA.

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Moreover, the report by IOM stipulates that nurses have to assume leadership roles with the help of other health care professionals to modify how healthcare delivery is done in the United States of America. Leadership roles can be instilled in the nurses through adequate training. The report recommends stringent regulations such as limitations on the scope of practice to be removed so that full benefits from the nurses can be felt in the healthcare sector.

Impact on Nursing Education

With the move of transforming the nurses' education, the report advocates that nurses to be allowed to achieve levels of education as high as reasonably achievable. This should be facilitated by an education system which is improved, therefore, promoting coherent academic progression. The education system of the nurses should be changed for the better before the nurses are allowed to begin official practice, in doing so, the changes will have a ripple effect in the United States system of health care. For instance, the modified education system will ensure the nurses are educated on the better care management of the patients, observe quality clinical standards, and redefine the roles and responsibilities of the nurses in a healthcare system which is reformed. Moreover, the education delivered to the nurses should be incremental such that it is for a lifetime presenting coherent opportunities for modulation to complex degree programs (Aiken et al., 2009).

After researching the way nurses are educated during the pre-license period, it was concluded there was a need for updating the curricula or changing the current one altogether. The new education system is required to address nurses' skills which play a significant role during negotiations with the entire team of healthcare professionals, access to and bypassing the regulatory stimulations determining the eligibility of patients' admission in social programs, and comprehending the impact of the programs and health care policies to the general clinical outcome. Nurses in various schools are not provided with an educational curriculum which is competency based. The current curriculum is dependent on educating the nurses for acute clinical care instead of community-based healthcare standards. To meet the future demand for nurses in the United States health care system, there should be an increase in the number of nurses in the workforce to 80 percent. Moreover, nurses holding doctorate certificates will be increased and this will have an effect on the promotion of research within the health care system.

Impact on Nursing Practice

Patients seek health care services demand care which is specialized towards their problems, and this can only be facilitated through the services of competent health professionals. Therefore, nurses under practice are required to perform to their fullness according to their level of education and training. Adoption of a transformed system will enable individual health care practitioners to determine their level of scope when practicing their respective roles, for instance, the nurses will know their specific responsibilities hence practice their roles in the fullness of their ability. Development of the Affordable Care Act 2010 did outline healthcare structures, consequently bringing in new possibilities in the nursing practice, for example, the nurses have are now able to work under their scope of practice hence, minimizing conflict in the line of duty (Cunningham, 2010). Nurses have been able to transform the delivery of services in the healthcare system. The transformation includes more availability of the nurses, high-quality clinical practices, and creation of a conducive environment for the patients which is value driven.

Impact on Transforming Leadership

According to the IOM report, to change the health care system in the United States of America, the nurses have to take effective leadership roles (IOM, 2010). For instance, nurses should develop a strong working partnership with other healthcare practitioners including the physicians to redefine the health care system. Therefore, the nursing profession is tasked with the production of good leaders throughout the system of health care. The health care system in the United States is diverse with leadership required in the boardrooms during the processes of decision making, to the field where clinical practice is undertaken. As a result, different stakeholders will effectively contribute to enhancing the delivery of quality healthcare across the entire system. This is because strong leaders are required to come up with decisive changes which will promote quality in the health care system.

References

IOM. (2010). A summary of the December 2009 Forum on the Future of Nursing: Care in the community.Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Aiken, L. H., R. B. Cheung, and D. M. Olds. (2009). Education policy initiatives to address the nurse shortage in the United States. Health Affairs 28(4):w646-w656.

Buerhaus, P., D. Staiger, and D. Auerbach. (2009). The future of the nursing workforce in the United States: Data, trends, and implications. Boston: Jones & Bartlett.

Cunningham, R. (2010). Tapping the potential of the healthcare workforce: Scope of practice and payment policies for advanced practice nurses and physician assistants (background paper no. 76). Washington, DC: National Health Policy Forum.