Nursing professionals are among the most essential specialists in healthcare since they spend the majority of their time with patients, providing them with support and assistance. The report “The Future of Nursing” is a document which sought to influence the development of the profession to meet the increasing demands of the American health system (Committee, 2010). According to some experts, it was partially successful, and some of the goals established by it have already been achieved, including the increase of doctoral degrees (Thew, 2019). Nevertheless, nowadays, it is still important to carefully analyze the recommendations provided by the report and develop clear strategies for implementing them in practice.
The authors of the document proposed a variety of recommendations to ensure that the U.S. healthcare system is sustainable and modern. Yet, the most important of them are the increase of the proportion of professionals with a bachelor’s degree, removal of practice barriers, the introduction of nurse residency programs, and the nursing workforce data analysis. The first proposition is particularly relevant under the current circumstances when the population of older adults is rising, and they need more medical assistance. Allowing advanced practice registered nurses (APN) to utilize fully their education and training by reforming the Medicare program is another reasonable idea, which will lead to better efficiency. Moreover, the authors of the report offered to implement programs which would facilitate the transition to practice for nurses who graduated recently. Finally, the modern healthcare system has to quickly respond to all the emerging challenges and problems, such as shortages, the report recommended building an infrastructure for receiving and analyzing nursing workforce data.
All of these recommendations are extremely topical and need to be introduced, but to do it, the government and medical institutions require clearly-defined strategies to navigate the changes. The success of the implementation of the propositions depends on the authorities; thus, they have to allocate considerable resources to ensure that reforms will be effective. For example, to increase the proportion of nursing professionals with a bachelor’s degree, the government can offer special grants to specialists already working in the industry. Similarly, federal agencies can invest in transition-programs for recent graduates, which will result in more competent professionals. As it was mentioned before, to remove the barriers to practice for APNs, the government needs to reform the Medicaid program, which requires additional financing. Establishing the infrastructure to collect and assess data on nurses can be done in partnership with the World Health Organization, which developed a framework of management tools concerning human resources (World Health Organization, n.d.). Thus, there are strategic decisions which can help the U.S. government to implement the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine.
In my view, the propositions outlined in the report are relevant and need to be taken into consideration by the government to make the healthcare system compatible with modern standards. Moreover, the report clearly defines the steps, which are important for making the nation’s hospitals more effective, efficient, and customer-oriented. Every citizen of the U.S. will benefit from having access to medical facilities which have many professionals ready to deliver excellent care.
The report “The Future of Nursing” contains valuable insights into the best practices of reforming the healthcare system in the sphere of nursing to provide better services to customers. The most important of the recommendations presented there are the increase in the number of professionals with a bachelor’s degree, removal of practice barriers, the introduction of nurse residency programs, and the nursing workforce data analysis. The government must consider and implement these propositions by investing resources, sponsoring grants, and working in partnership with the World Health Organization.
References
Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine. (2010). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. The National Academies Press.
Thew, J. (2019). The future of nursing report: where are we now? Health Leaders. Web.
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Improving health workforce data and evidence. Web.