Nursing Education and Nursing

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) research that resulted in the report, "Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health," have resulted in a comprehensive reevaluation of the role of professional nurses in American society and a growing recognition and appreciation of the importance of their continually expanding role as part of a multidisciplinary healthcare team.

To gain some new insights, this paper provides an analysis of these initiatives to identify the importance of the IOM "Future of Nursing" report related to nursing practice, nursing education and nursing workforce development. Finally, a discussion concerning the role of state-based action coalitions and how do they advance goals of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action is followed by a summary of two initiatives that were spearheaded by the State of New York concerning improving nursing educational opportunities.

Discussion concerning the work of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative on the Future of Nursing and the Institute of Medicine research that led to the IOM report, "Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health" In 2010, the IOM published a report, "The Future of Nursing: Leading Changes, Advancing Health" containing a series of recommendations that should be implemented in order to improve the nursing workforce's ability to meet an increasingly diverse patient population (Cipriano, 2016).

The IOM's recommendations concerning six main areas: (a) improving access to care; (b) fostering interprofessional collaboration; (c) promoting nursing leadership; (d) transforming nursing education; (e) increasing diversity in nursing, and (f) collecting workforce data (Our story, 2016). In response to the IOM's report, the first phase of a multi-year, $5.4 million initiative was launched by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2012 (Mcneal, 2012).

The Future of Nursing initiative is intended to develop a more highly educated nursing workforce by 2020 through the provision of grants to state-level Action Coalitions and their partners in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, California, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York, Washington State and Texas (Trossman, 2015). Additional grants were subsequently awarded to the Action Coalitions in these states in 2014 in an effort to develop sustainable healthcare practices and to promote diversity in the nursing workforce (Trossman, 2014).

Today, state-level Action Coalitions are at work in all states and the District of Columbia (State action coalitions, 2016). Identification of the importance of the IOM "Future of Nursing" report related to nursing practice, nursing education and nursing workforce development In 2015, the IOM published an update concerning the progress that had been made towards achieving the recommendations outlined in the 2010 report (Cipriano, 2016).

In sum, the update emphasized that, "We agree progress has been made since the Future of Nursing report was issued in 2010, however, if we hope to achieve the vision of a patient-focused health care system, we must ensure the nation's 3.4 million registered nurses are able to fully contribute" (as cited in Cipriano, 2016, p. 4).

Likewise, the update also reports that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Campaign for Action initiative has also made substantial progress in implementing these recommendations but cites the need for additional effort in the areas of scope of practice, education, collaboration and leadership, diversity and data (Cipriano, 2016).

The role of state-based action coalitions and how do they advance goals of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action As noted above, there are currently Action Coalitions are operating in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the overarching goal of collaborating with stakeholders such as healthcare professionals, policymakers, educators, and civic leaders in an effort to improve the accessibility and quality of healthcare services provided by the nursing workforce (Our story, 2016).

Summary of two initiatives spearheaded by my state's Action Coalition In New York, the Action Coalition has made it their priority to increase the number of nurses who have bachelor and advanced degrees based on the IOM's recommendation that at least 80% of nurses should have a bachelor of science degrees or higher by 2020 as well as a doubling in the number of nurses who hold doctorate degrees (Transforming nursing education, 2016).

To this end, the New York Action Coalition has developed strategies that facilitate the acquisition of bachelors and higher degrees and.