IOM Report: Future of Nursing

Robert Wood Johnson; a remarkable man. He is a man that changes the face of healthcare even after he is no longer on this earth. Robert Johnson, a pilot, writer, sailor, and activist, to name a few was devoted to his small family business to what is known now and Johnson & Johnson. He took a particular interest in hospitals and noticed hospital administrators needed specialized training and was a pioneer in the first school that provided that education. He also was an advocate for the patients that he saw get lost in the maze of healthcare.

Being such an advocate for education and having such a humble heart for the needy, when he died he left the majority of his money to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This Foundation continues to help the poor, and uneducated. However, this foundation is also the advocate for so much evidence-based recommendations for leading change and advancing heath in our health care society today.

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“In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) launched a two-year initiative to respond to the need to assess and transform the nursing profession” (IOM). The IOM formed a committee on the RWJF Initiative to develop a report that would “Make recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing” (IOM). This was created due to the fact nurses have so many barriers to overcome to be able to provide optimal patient care (IOM). A path needs to be pave to be able to overcome these barriers, and this initiative is just the tool to help start paving the way of the IOM report that will lead change in the future of nursing.

There are several important aspects to the IOM report relating to the future of change in nursing. One of those is in the way nurses practice. One of the recommendations is to remove the scope of practice barriers (IOM thick one). This would require action on the congress and state level. From the Congress, they would need to “Expand the Medicare program to include coverage of advanced practice RN’s” (IOM thick one). They would also need to authorize advanced practice RN’s to perform assessments for admission into home health or long term care facilities (IOM thick one). These are just a couple of examples.

On the state level, they would need to “reform scope of practice regulations to conform to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Model Nursing Practice Act and Model Nursing Administratiive Rules” (IOM thick one). They also need to revise the way advanced practice nurses are reimbursed and make it easier for them to be paid for their services as long as they are within their scope of practice within their state (IOM thick one). This recommendation also expands to the Office of Personnel Management to require insurers to include coverage of services provided from a Nurse Practitioner. This would allow patients so see a nurse practionor if desired or needed to avoid long waits to be seen by a doctor as those are becoming short handed as well.

Another aspect to the IOM report that came from the RWJF is looking at nursing education. There are several recommendations that came to light in this area. First is the recommendation to establish nurse residency programs. Getting all entities such as the state boards of nursing, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Heath care organizations, services administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and philanthropic organizations all involved in developing and funding continuing education for nurses. These programs will not only expand competency but also vastly improve patient outcomes (IOM thick one).

Education recommendations continue with increasing the proportions of nurses with BSN degrees to eighty percent by the year 2020 and doubling the number of nurses with a doctorate by the year 2020 as well. The pathway to help make this happen would be to help the academic nurse leaders to help pave the way for employers to help with funding, initiatives to continue such as raises and promotions, and to monitor progress (IOM thick one).

Another aspect to the IOM report that came from the RWJF is looking at nursing education. The recommendation to “Expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts” (IOM thick one) was made. This recommendation would lead to nurses being able to collaborate more with physicians in a leadership role conducting research and helping to redesign the healthcare system.