IOM Barriers

The Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health acknowledges the changing healthcare sector in the US and describes future vision of healthcare and the role of nurses to fulfill that vision. The United States always strives to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the entire population of the country. In order to achieve this goal an overall restructuring of the healthcare system was necessitated. Nurses are considered to be the central part of the healthcare system to provide high quality and safe patient care. Nursing in the US is the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce with almost 3 million nurses working in different areas across the county. The changing

Nursing career is one of the few fastest growing fields in the health care industry not only in the United States but also in the world. Nurse practice has drastically changed in the last decade and as a result the need for changes in nursing practice is becoming more and more important. The Institute of Medicine report discusses so many aspects in nursing but this paper requires detailing the impacts on Nursing Practice (Transforming Practice), Nursing Education (Transforming Education), and the Nurse’s role as a Leader (Transforming Leadership). These three key aspects are discussed in the following pages.

In the evolving health care environment, a guiding policy and personnel planning is required with respect to the numbers, types and mix of professionals. To overcome the challenges of the existing health care system and practice environment, “nurses need to be well educated, team oriented, adaptable and able to apply competencies relevant to leadership” (The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, 2011, p. 270). Health care system is complex and has conflicting interests. Nurse helps the patient and family to connect to their social support systems and help to coordinate care and improve patient outcomes. Evidence shows that high quality nursing care can reduce cost

This paper seeks to expand upon the 2010 Institute of Medicine’s report on the future of nursing, leading change, advancing health and illustrating its impact on nursing education, practice and leadership. There is an ongoing transformation in the healthcare system necessitated by the need to achieve a patient centered care in the community, public, and primary care settings in contrast to previous times. Nurses occupying vital roles in the healthcare system, need improvements in the areas mentioned above to

Nursing school programs have an integral part in ensuring that the nurse graduates from their program can deal with the increasing complex US health care system. Nursing schools can make the necessary revisions to their curriculum to better prep nursing students in evidence-based practice and make them empowered to lead change when they become graduate nurses. By using the RN LEADER framework addressed later in this summary, new RNs will be able to tackle challenges to improve and transform the US healthcare system.

In 2008, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) launched an initiative to assess and reform the nursing profession to address the complex unique nursing needs for the current world. The IOM report published in 2010 calls on nurses to take greater role in the healthcare system by taking leadership roles and obtaining high level education. The report envisions nurses to use their full potential and attain academic progression to redesign the healthcare profession in United States.

Nursing leaders must apply critical thinking and analysis skills in order to find opportunities to improve gaps in care. Consequently, nurses with the ability to identify, understand, and influence opportunities for improvements while consistently achieving quality and safety goals have unlimited opportunities to exercise leadership (Grossman & Valiga, 2012). Lastly, nurses whom have the understanding of the complexity of leadership and the awareness that the leadership role is something every nurse can fulfill will lead nurses towards change and advancing health as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) has campaigned for action while enhancing nurses’ contributions to delivering quality

The aging population and increased client demand for new services, technologies, and drugs contribute to the increase in health care resulting in the nurse having to take on the role as a leader. As reported in the IOM report, the role of nurse leadership designs, implements, and evaluates client care by coordinating, delegating and supervising the care provided by the health care team, including licensed nurses, technicians, and other health professionals. Nurse leadership will focus on prevention and focusing on populations as a whole rather than individual

Healthcare is moving swiftly into uncharted territory. New regulations, changes in Medicare and Medicaid, and even reimbursement issues are all on the forefront of the twenty-first century healthcare. Heated battles are ongoing in the political arena, however it is the American patient that will feel its effects, changes, and unfortunately undergo its transition. With the ever increasing needs related to patient care, such as living longer, more complex diseases, and rapid advancement in technology, a shift in education is a must. There is a profound difference it the handling of the healthcare system. Different viewpoints has caused a poor delivery system in patient care. As nurse leaders, leading the way will be instrumental in

These organizations evaluated objectively the state of America’s healthcare system and concluded that there is a significant need to increase access to care and decrease disparities. They offered a solution to promote the nursing profession to significantly impact these areas in the healthcare field. The IOM recognized that advances in healthcare delivery has changed significantly over time and that increasing the level of

Based on IOM recommendations, nurses require earning higher education and training to handle current and future complex health care needs of the population and to help develop a patient-centered health care system in a cost-effective method. Higher education will prepare nurses to become competent to face the transforming complex healthcare needs. Highly educated nurses are eligible to fill the gaps in the health delivery system. The freedom to practice will qualify the nurses to step into the increased interdisciplinary possibility generated by healthcare reform and actualize the intention of the IOM recommendations.

The future of the healthcare delivery system is changing. Due to the complexities related to health and nursing care delivery the nursing profession needs to look at ways to expand nursing knowledge. There is now greater focus on health promotion, illness prevention as well as how to handle high acuity, chronic disease management across the care continuum in a cost effective manner (AACN 2011). The educational levels required for nurses have been long debated. The Tri-Council for Nursing has proclaimed that without a more educated workforce the nation’s health could be at risk. The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) recommends a minimum of a master’s level for nurse leaders due to their evolving roles that have resulted

The report by Institute of Medicine stresses on the importance of nursing education in healthcare reform as part of its proposal that contains a timeline. In attempts to provide a glimpse of the future of nursing, the report suggests that 80 percent of registered nurses should have BSNs by 2020 and doubling the number of nurses with doctorate degrees within the same timeframe. The IOM reports is a conclusion of a two-year project that brought together unprecedented involvement with healthcare professionals in the entire country (Hendren, 2010). The report consists of various recommendations for the nursing profession including increasing the proportion of baccalaureate degree nurses, doubling doctorate degree nurses, and involvement of nurses in lifelong learning.

By reading the report, “The Future of Nursing Leading Change Advancing Health”, it describes how important nurses are becoming stronger leaders for the future advancement of nursing. With all the changes coming with the Affordable Care Act, this report recommends that nurses need to be playing a large contributing roll in the development of policies to maintain patient centered health care, making sure that health care is accessible to all, and is affordable. Stronger leadership skills can be developed through continued education. By nurses moving on to higher degree education, they are thus developing the leadership skills they will need to work more cohesively with others both in the health care field and out. Nurses need to be playing a role in all aspects of policy making. From working in the hospitals and communities as advocates for patients which is defined as “The nurse is demonstrating the value of other-centeredness to advance the health of an individual” (Creasia & Friberg, 2011, p. 80). Nurses will need to sit on boards both in the hospitals and in the public sector, legislating to political officials, and even possibly holding a political office themselves. It is going to take all nurses to make a change from nursing students to advance practice nurses, educators, and nursing organizations leadership (“The

Nursing has become the fastest growing profession within the health care field. Nursing has increased not only in demand but also in standards of patient care and expectations. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) discusses various changes within the scope of nursing as well as how nursing has and impact on the future for advancing health. Furthermore, IOM has significantly impacted the nursing education, nursing practice, as well as nurses roles as leaders.