Message from Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare Chief Nursing Officer
Moving Nursing Forward
Here we are in 2011. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law last March. The future of the Affordable Care Act remains unclear, as does that of Health Care Reform. The bright spot is the focus on the nursing profession in 2010.
Last October, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health”, which advocates for a greater role for nurses in health care. The IOM report is the first step in moving nursing toward a future in which nurses help shape health care systems resulting in higher quality care accessible to all, promoting wellness, disease prevention and improving health care outcomes, rather than simply delivering what others have planned.
The report was the result of a two-year initiative in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and contains bold recommendations for the future of nursing. Remember that nurses are the largest segment of the healthcare workforce. Below is a snapshot of some of the recommendations outlined for the Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner in the IOM report. The recommendations include:
- Removing scope-of-practice barriers for the Advanced Registered Nurse Professional
- Supporting nurses to achieve higher levels of nursing education
- Ensuring that nurses are full partners in health care planning and reform
- Improving data collection to achieve better workforce planning
- Nurse Residency Programs
All nursing organizations, including the various schools of nursing and the private sector, should be planning, communicating and working together to see what each can do to initiate the recommendations from this report.
Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare (JHSMH) will look to this report as our Blue Print for the Nursing Strategic Plan, as well as the ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center) Magnet standards. The proposed plan will be placed on the web and we want to engage all JHSMH nurses to give feedback. This is your plan. Please work with your Shared Governance Council representative for input into the work plan as well as practice of nursing at JHSMH.
I am looking forward to a very busy but exciting 2011.
Cheryl Fugatte
Vice President
Chief Nursing Officer