NURS 3100 Week 2: The Future of Nursing
In Week 1, we discussed the idea that the foundation of YOUR emerging legacy is the current individual experience and knowledge that you bring to the profession. Your experience and knowledge are an invaluable and incredible contribution to the safety and quality of health care. In a recent report in the American Nurses Association (ANA) journal American Nurse Today, Fitzpatrick (2015)concludes that “nurses are the last defense in patient safety.” According to a Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Report (2008), nurse are the “sharp end” of patient care, in that nurses provide the closest and most continuous care of patients. As a practicing Registered Nurse, you are a full partner in and integral part of the health care team!
As a Registered Nurse, you have been carrying out six top aims to improve health care as stated by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI; n.d.). With compassion and vigilance, for example, nurses are at the forefront in maintaining a safe environment for patient welfare. Additionally, nurses are working to improve health care that is effective, or based on scientific knowledge, and that is patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable.
Let us focus for a moment on the term equitable, the last of the IHI aims. Equitable care means care that does not vary in quality because of personal characteristics such as gender, geographic location, and socioeconomic status. You are going to read more about equitable care in your assignments and provide your own comments and insights into that IHI aim.
The IHI has also concluded that nurses are critical to the future of health care. The IHI predicts that nurses will play a critical role in producing safe, quality care for all patients in the health care system.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) also made several recommendations for the future of nursing (Institute of Medicine, 2010):
Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training.
Nurses should achieve higher levels of education through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression.
Nurses should be full partners with physicians and other health care professionals in a redesigned health care system.
Effective workforce planning and policy making should be enhanced through better data collection and improved information infrastructure.
Without you, health care has little or no future. You are called to act as an indispensable part of the future of health care and an invaluable member of the nursing team that is already the last defense in patient care. Your Walden education will build upon and complement the rich individual experience and knowledge that you bring to the profession and to Walden.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze the critical role of nursing in the future of health care
Analyze the impact of nursing practice on the quality, safety, and equitability of patient care
Analyze the leadership role of nurses
Apply time management techniques in virtual context
Apply strategies to improve writing