Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report: The Furture of Nursing

Future of Nursing
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Introduction
The health sector, just like any other field in the present age, is being affected by the rapid technological advancements and the so-called digital era. Medical personnel is therefore faced with the challenge to continuously change, update or conform, so as to stay in touch with these changes. In the United States, for example, the healthcare system has for a long time been in dire need of reforms. These changes are mainly aimed at service improvement as well as quality delivery. It is indeed understandable that with everything kept constant, lack of reforms has had a serious effect on the healthcare industry as a whole. For example, with the population growth in the country, there is bound to be a rise in the number of patients, which will subsequently increase the population of patients in these healthcare facilities.
The result of this would be overcrowding in these institutions. Nurses would be in short supply as well, and then a crisis will set off. With the passage of the new healthcare law, it is expected that there will be the delivery of more quality services and a resultant increase in professionalism from the medical personnel. The Institute of Medicine in conjunction with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report towards this end.
Impact on Nursing of the 2010 IOM reports on the Future of Nursing
The IOM report focuses on preparing nurses to play a larger role in the delivery of quality health care, by eliminating the barriers brought about by the ever-changing and evolving health care industry of the current age. The report also keeps in line with the legislative measures put in place, and the expected changes in the landscape of the industry (Davis, 2011).The report had four main issues, three of which focused specifically on nurses. First, nurses are supposed to exercise their professional competencies, secondly, they were expected to aspire even to get higher education levels, and finally, they were to be equal partners with other members of the healthcare sector, such as physicians. These points are likely to impact the future of nursing. This will affect nursing education and nursing practice.
There will be increased efforts to eliminate or mitigate the barriers that nurses face in their areas of operation. Among these are barriers related to regulation, which usually vary from one state to the other. Regulatory reforms should be lifted, so as to ensure that there is indeed more flexibility by nurses when handling patients, and also when it comes to the decision-making ...