The groundwork for the IOM report “Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” was established in 2008 when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was approached by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with a partnership proposal. The two-year partnership led to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine. The IOM’s committee was made up of health professionals from diverse areas including nonprofits, business, health care institutions and the academia. The committee had a mandate to develop a report for the future of nursing that would include ways to increase quality of care and control costs at the same time. The report titled “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)” was produced in 2010. This report included recommendations in the areas of education, nurse training, workforce policy and professional leadership. It included suggestions on how to improve access to care as well as new ideas for nursing practice. Based on this report, “the Initiative on the Future of Nursing” was commenced. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works through this initiative to support research on issues identified in the report, and to carry out the recommendations.
The Importance of the IOM “Future of Nursing” Report
The IOM report pinpoints the nursing workforce as being important towards improving the healthcare system. The nursing workforce has over three million members. It is the largest healthcare profession in the U.S. Four central areas of need highlighted by the report include: allowing full extent of nursing practice based on education and training; improving the educational system to make for continuous progression as well as the achievement of higher levels of training for nurses; healthcare redesigning in the U.S. should include nurses as full partners with other health professionals, and lastly, improved data collection is necessary for effective planning and workforce policy-making. The report requests that stakeholders and leaders act on these identified areas.
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"Implementation of the IOM Future of Nursing Report".
Specific recommendations made by the committee include: to remove barriers to scope of practice; increase opportunities for nursing leadership in improvement initiatives; develop residency programs for nurses; a target of 80% increase in baccalaureate degree holders within the nursing workforce by the year 2020; a target of doubling doctoral degree holders by the year 2020; implement lifelong learning strategies for nursing; train and equip nurses to be change leaders in health, and lastly, develop systems for workforce data collection and analysis within the nursing profession.
The Objective of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.
The Campaign for Action is based on the recommendations of the IOM Future of Nursing report. The campaign is a national initiative to guide the implementation of those recommendations. The vision of the campaign is a health care system that enables access to quality care with full nursing contribution. The campaign is coordinated by the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA). The CCNA is a joint initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the AARP Foundation. The Campaign for Action has 51 state Action Coalitions and involves policy makers, philanthropic leaders, health care providers, advocates, businesses and academic leaders. Currently there are more than 80 organizations involved as members in the campaign. State or local level participation involves joining a state action coalition. These bring various stakeholders together to try to make necessary changes recommended in the IOM report. National level participation involves joining Champion Nursing Coalition, a diverse group made up of various stakeholders.
Several groups are involved in Campaign for Action. The Champion Nursing Council plays an advisory role and is made up of leading organizations in nursing. The National League for Nursing, the Tri-Council for Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are committing significant resources to support fresh ideas by “Action Coalitions”. The diversity steering committee works to support diversification in the nursing workforce and to decrease disparities in health care. The goal is that religion, ethnicity, creed, race, sexual orientation and gender should not be a barrier to access to health care. The Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) works with state action coalitions to promote educational goals. APIN is funded by the Tri-Council and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Strategic Advisory Committee guides the strategic mission of the campaign as well as act as representatives for the program. The progress of the campaign is monitored via a framework of pillars that are based on the recommendations of the IOM report.
State-based Action Coalitions
Action coalitions at the state level provide a driving force for the campaign by creating strong and connected networks that work to improve health care at the grassroots levels. An example of state-based action can be seen in the Florida Action Coalition. This state coalition is implementing an initiative to improve the transition from Registered Nurse (RN) to Bachelor’s degree (BSN) programs within the Florida college system. The initiative is focused on reducing time constraints and financial barriers to improving nursing education in the state. The coalition has developed a toolkit that will help stakeholders address the issue of academic nursing progression. The state coalition is also working to diversify the state’s nursing workforce to reflect the diversity in the state’s population. Inputs have been received from the Florida… Alliance for Diversity in Healthcare, and a diversity council has been set up to guide this initiative.
- RWJF Initiative on the Future of Nursing, (2013). Initiative on the future of nursing. Retrieved 28 July, 2013 from http://thefutureofnursing.org/
- Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, (2013). Who’s Involved. Retrieved 28 July 2013 from http://campaignforaction.org/whos-involved
- Florida Nursing Action Coalition: Campaign for Action, (2013). State action coalition: Florida. Retrieved 28 July 2013 from http://campaignforaction.org/state/florida
