IOM Report on the Future of Nursing: Recommendations and Implementation

This paper reflects on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, the future of nursing: leading change, advancing health. It evaluates the roles, education, and responsibilities of nurses and how they should be changed to meet the needs of the aging and diverse population and respond to the dynamic healthcare system. The recommendations focus on education, diversity in the healthcare workforce, and interprofessional collaboration. The paper also discusses the Florida Action Coalition and its efforts to promote nursing education and leadership.

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Introduction
The United States of America has strived to transform its healthcare systems to offer
affordable, seamless, quality care which is easily accessible to all the people in the country,
evidence-based, patient-centered and leads to enhanced outcomes of health. The country is
needed to remodel various facets and aspects of its healthcare system to achieve this goal. The
nursing profession is one area which needs transformation as it is one of the largest segments of
the healthcare workforce (McNeal, 2012). In this paper I will reflect on the institute of medicine
report, the future of nursing: leading change, advancing health. The refection is a vigorous
evaluation of the roles, education, and responsibilities of nurses and how it should be changed to
suit and meet the needs of the aging population, the progressively diverse population as well as
responding to the intricate dynamic healthcare system. The recommendations in the IOM report
focus on the vital intersection between the readiness of the healthcare workforce and health
needs of the people across all the lifespan.
The work of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative on the Future of
Nursing and IOM
The work of the committee and the Institute of Medicine was to come up with various
recommendation and programs needed to transform healthcare systems in the country. The
nursing profession is one of the largest segments in the healthcare systems, and for it to serve the
population more prudently, it needs to be reformed.

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IOM Report recommendations and importance
IOM report states that the nursing profession is the largest segment of the United States
of America healthcare workforce. Thus, nursing represents the biggest sector of the healthcare
system workforce having more than 3.4 million registered nurses in the country. The report states
that nurses must assist and respect the decisions, choices, and care for the patients in the ever-
dynamic healthcare settings. It is therefore, very prudent for nurses to be prepared as well as
become aware of the various transformations which are taking place around them especially in
the healthcare setting and the plans which put them at the core of the future (Goes, Savage &
Friedman, 2012; Friedman, Savage & Goes, 2013). According to the report, there are numerous
available residency programs in academic settings and acute care healthcare organizations. The
concept of residency should be used in the community-based environment. Education
transformation has been given a key space in the IOM report. In the report, it is required that
nurses acquire top-level training and education to operate in the dynamic healthcare structure. It
is important for nurses to advance training and education without experiencing hardships and
difficulties (Hassmiller & Combes, 2012). Opportunities to enhance education from the associate
degree in nursing, licensed practice in nursing or baccalaureate science in nursing, as well as the
advanced degrees, should be made available to all the nurses.
The report also recommends an enhanced lifelong and interprofessional learning for
nurses as it is extremely vital for nurses in the current healthcare settings. The committee of IOM
recommended that all nursing organizations, professional societies as well as education
programs, and the individual nurses made lifelong and interprofessional learning such and
continued learning programs so that they can be ever ready in the present evolving healthcare
settings (Shaffer, Davis, To Dutka & Richardson, 2014). The report also recommends a diversity

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in the healthcare workforce which should be made a priority by all the stakeholders in the
healthcare systems. The committee recommends the future of the nursing; campaign for action to
emphasize and focus on the retention and recruitment of the various diverse nursing workforce.
The IOM committee also recommended expansion of the opportunities and efforts for inter- and
trans-professional collaboration as well as leadership enhancement for nurses (Savage, Fottler &
Blair, 2011).
It was recommended that opportunities for promoting and enhancing interprofessional
collaboration for nurses to implement, diffuse and design collaborative activities in delivery and
care as well as the interdisciplinary activities which center on leadership. Nurses are required to
communicate and interact with a more and wider diverse audience and people to acquire wide
range support for objectives of the campaign. The last recommendation by the IOM committee
was to enhance nursing workforce collection of data. The committee members recommended
that enhanced workforce data collection is needed and that data collection should focus on the
need for collaboration regarding the collection as well as analysis of data.
Florida Action Coalition
The Florida Action Coalition was formed in 2011 with the aim of providing leadership in
developing the nursing profession to ensure that people have access to effective, high-quality
healthcare (Grants to support state action coalitions, 2014). The vision of the coalition is to
ensure that the people have access to effective safe and quality healthcare, patient-centered care
in a working healthcare system, and in which all the nurses engage as vital partners in realizing
the vision. Florida has made numerous strides in building a diverse workforce. The county has a
working nursing workforce of about 83% of nurses who are whites, and 90% of the nurses are
female (Twelve new state action coalitions, 2012). That workforce does not represent a diverse

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picture, and this is not the case in Florida state. Dr. Winifred, director of advocacy and consumer
affairs, stated that the intervention of the state is to establish a healthcare system which is more
representative of all the groups they serve. Since nurses are the largest segment of the healthcare
workforce, it is prudent that they mirror the diversity of all people that they work to protect.
Florida’s action coalition has brought together various diverse nurses in their workforce. They
have also adopted and implemented the diversity action plan.
Florida action coalition has promoted and enhanced education and training of nurses in
the state. For instance, the Florida blue foundation in partnership with the Florida action coalition
sponsored nurse leaders between 2016 and 2018 (Nursing and the Future of Health Care: Florida
Action Coalition, 2011). The project aimed to create nurses as leaders in the state to promote
health and nursing policy (Knowlton & Whichello, 2018). The coalition has also partnered with
other stakeholders like the universities, government, businesses, and other agencies to promote
practice, leadership, and education. The partnership is vital in promoting and developing
strategies needed to strengthen the nursing profession.
Conclusion
IOM report is one of the important reports in the nursing sector since it offers various
recommendations needed in the transformation of the healthcare system. The recommendations
which stipulates various educative programs are seen as championing for a healthcare workforce
who will be up to date with the ever-dynamic healthcare settings.

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References
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Revisiting the Evolution of Health Systems Organization. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group
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Goes, J., Savage, G. T., & Friedman, L. H. (2012). Annual Review of Health Care Management:
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Group Publishing Limited.
Grants to support state action coalitions. (2014). American Nurse, 46(1), 5.
Hassmiller, S., & Combes, J. (2012). Nurse Leaders in the Boardroom: A Fitting Choice. Journal
of Healthcare Management, 57(1), 8–11. https://doi.org/10.1097/00115514-201201000-
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Knowlton, M., & Whichello, R. (2018). Attention Health Care Leaders: Literature Review
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https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000303
McNeal, G. J. (2012). The IOM Report on the Future of Nursing: One Year Later. ABNF
Journal, 23(1), 3.
Nursing and the Future of Health Care: Florida Action Coalition. (2011). Florida Nurse, 59(3),
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Savage, G. T., Fottler, M. D., & Blair, J. D. (2011). Biennial Review of Health Care
Management. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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Shaffer, F. A., Davis, C. R., To Dutka, J., & Richardson, D. R. (2014). The Future of Nursing:
Domestic Agenda, Global Implications. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 25(4), 388–
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