Professional Development of Nursing Professionals
Professional Development of Nursing Professionals
In 2010, The Institute of Medicine, or IOM, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published a report with ideas and plans on how to improve upon area that were lacking within the nursing profession. Out of all these deliberations came four key objectives:
Nurses should practice to fullest extent of their training and education (Institute of Medicine, 2010).
Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression (Institute of Medicine, 2010).
Nurses should be full partners with physicians and other healthcare professionals in redesigning healthcare in the US (Institute of Medicine, 2010).
Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure (Institute of Medicine, 2010).
The impact of this report on nursing education has been a positive one. Two particular studies were done by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) (George Washington University, 2013). The first study, led by Patricia Pittman, PhD, an associate professor of health policy at SPHHS and her colleagues investigated how much employers have instituted the IOM’s recommendations (George Washington University, 2013). These recommendations included achieving a workforce in which 80% of nurses acquire a baccalaureate degree before 2020 (George Washington University, 2013). One way employers could reinforce this would be to would be to offer tuition reimbursement to its nurses. The survey consisted of 447 nurse executives. This included clinics, hospitals and home care and hospice. Results indicated most of the nurses surveyed said their employers showed preference for nurses that achieved their BSN. It was also found that 94% of...