It is time to revisit the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. As NPs, educators, and administrators, we are constantly receiving information concerning the report and it is prudent to periodically reexamine the document through an organized venue. On December 5, 2011, the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) conducted a telebriefing, which introduced the organization's initiative to further the recommendations stated in the report through the support of nursing journal editors. INANE identifies itself as a "nonorganization" or "an international collaborative-a collective of nursing editors and publishers focused on meeting the practice, research, and educational needs of the nursing profession. Our primary mission is to promote best practices in publishing and high standards in the nursing literature."1 Members are not exclusively editors; they include individuals involved in the production or distribution of nursing literature. Open access to the full transcript and recording of the telebriefing is available on the INANE website.2
Participants on the panel included individuals from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-Elaine Arkin (moderator), Susan Hassmiller, and John Lumpkin; the IOM-Judith Salerno; original committee members Linda Burnes Bolton, Michael Bleich, and John Rowe; and a member of INANE-Marion Broome, editor of Nursing Outlook.
Re-examining IOM's message
Each speaker was given an opportunity to address one of the four major areas in the report-leadership, practice, education, and interprofessional collaboration. Discussion centered on information about the impact the report has had to date, actions taken to implement the recommendations within and between major partnering organizations (including government agencies), and plans for the present and future, emphasizing the pivotal role of the 36-state action coalitions already established and operating effectively. Each person linked her or his discussion to one or more of the report's four key messages :
1. Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training.
2. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression.
3. Nurses should be full partners with physicians and other health professionals in redesigning U.S. healthcare.
4. Effective workforce planning and policy making requires better data collection and an improved information infrastructure.3
Rising to the challenge
Listeners were encouraged to visit the Future of Nursing(TM) Campaign for Action website to find out how they could personally become involved in implementing the report.4 The panel collectively agreed that the nursing community was at a pivotal point, and nurses had to meet the challenge and become leaders along with other professions to develop more effective systems of healthcare delivery that improve access, quality, patient outcomes, and costs.
The faculty (including myself), who teach in the Doctor of Nursing Practice capstone courses at my college of nursing, assign sections of the IOM report to students to present in seminar and lead discussions, concentrating on recommendations for advanced nursing practice. Students often have full-time clinical positions and may not be aware of or had the occasion to read the numerous documents from professional organizations that influence their daily existence and capacity to practice-from an unknowingly close distance.
Jamesetta Newland, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FAANP, FNAP
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
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