The Impact of the IOM Report on Nursing Essay

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

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by the United States government and is the largest health care reform since Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. With this new legislation, there will be a huge transformation of the health care system we know today. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an organization that is independent of government and provides unbiased advice used in making informed legislative decisions about health care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the largest philanthropy in the United States, collaborated with the IOM to evaluate and transform the nursing profession in order to provide

Throughout the process of composing this report, the Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing devised and enacted what is known as the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. The engendering of the "Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health" was a major component of that initiative. The aforementioned organization was not only responsible for conducting the research that this report was based on, but actually provided four essential recommendations that it believed the data supported and that have a direct correlation to the data collection necessary for future workforce policy making and planning, as

A pivotal IOM recommendation was the expansion of opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts with physicians and other healthcare members (The Future of Nursing Leading Change, Advancing

Changes in the Health Care System and the Practice of Nursing have become complex. Technological changes, complicated client needs, short hospital length of stay, and departure from acute care to community based care, all these changes have underscore the need for professional nurses to think critically in order to provide safe and effective client care. A better educated nursing workforce can provide good health education to patients and their families. The affordable care of 2010 has required the need for nurses to expand their role of practice to meet complicated patient demands. This has prompted the Institute Of Medicine to review the “Future of Nursing, Leading change and Advancing Health”. {Creasia & Fribery,2011}

In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA gave many Americans the opportunity to have health care coverage that previously may have not been available to them. The reform is primarily aimed at decreasing the number of uninsured and underinsured Americans. The landscape of health care is changing and nursing is evolving alongside it. This health care overhaul gives nurses a vital role in leading the reform revolution. With more than three million strong, nursing is the biggest sector of the nation’s health care labor

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

The Obama health care legislation known as the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) has received mixed reviews over the last couple years. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, putting in place comprehensive reforms that improve access to affordable health coverage for everyone and protect consumers from abusive insurance company practices (Health Reform in Action, 2012). Many people dislike the idea of Obamacare because of misinformation obtained from the press, political candidates and by those who refuse to seek the information themselves and go on hearsay. The new health reform law provides security to the hardworking citizens of the United States. Obamacare holds insurance companies accountable, lowers health care costs, gives Americans more freedom and control in their health care choices and improves the quality of care (Health Reform in Action, 2012). With Obamacare, insurance agencies

“According to the IOM report, the nursing profession is the largest segment of the nation’s healthcare workforce. Nursing represents the largest sector of the health professions, with more than 3 million registered nurses in the United States.”

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.

The role of a nurse in healthcare is to promote wellness, healing, advocate for the patient, and to critically think about orders that physicians have placed. Nurses are the last line of defense before harm can come to the patient. Nurses provide the checks and balances that are needed in such a fast-paced, high stress work environment. Nurses need to be highly educated to understand not only the how, but the why of all tasks they are performing. It is important to have nurses that are educated beyond obtaining their basic nursing license in order to fully

Nursing is one of the most popular professions in healthcare. To become a professional nurse, one must acquire certain level of education, whether it is at associate or baccalaureate degree level. Once becoming a nurse a number of professional standards must be maintained to stay abreast with the profession. In that respect, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its 2010 report had suggested many recommendations focusing on the future of nursing. The aim of the report is to put forth recommendations that allow nurses to “(1) ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their education and training (2) improve nursing education, (3) provide opportunities for nurses to assume leadership positions and to serve as full

There has been much written about the changing health care environment as a result of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (public Law 111-148). This bill created changes in the availability of health insurance by expanding coverage, holding insurance companies accountable while guaranteeing more choices. It including lowering health care costs for some individuals and expanded the Medicaid program in states. The expansion in Medicaid was intended to provide health coverage for

“Nurses are more than caregivers in today’s healthcare settings. They are teachers, advocates and pioneers in improving healthcare. They are stepping out of the old model and taking ownership for changes in healthcare. Nurses are developing their own scientific research programs to improve patient care. They are playing a pivotal role in healthcare reform. Nurses are becoming leaders, not followers in healthcare reform.”

The second guideline outlines the need for nurses with higher degrees and competencies. This pursuit of higher education must be seamless. The third suggestion stresses the need to be equal partners in designing the future of healthcare. Nurses must be part of the solution to health care reform. Fourthly, there is a need for accurate numbers of health care workers available. With this data accurate projections can be made. These facts must be provided on a state level as well as regional (Institute of Medicine, 2010). For the nursing workforce, the IOM Future of Nursing report is of great importance.