Since its publication in 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on the future of nursing has generated a flurry of professional work [horizontal ellipsis] speeches, interviews and press releases, task forces, coalitions, surveys, and white papers. The report has become a spring board for discussing, planning, and recommending change in nursing leadership, practice, education, and interprofessional collaboration, with more than 15,000 visitors viewing the report online each month. The report also led to the creation of "The Campaign for Action," a joint venture between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Coordinated through the Center to Champion Nursing in America, or CCNA, the campaign vision is a healthcare system in which all Americans have access to high-quality, patient-centered care and in which nurses contribute as critical partners.
Working alongside our professional colleagues, members of the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE) coordinated a publishing initiative to further the recommendations of the campaign. To date, more than 40 articles and editorials have appeared in a wide variety of nursing journals, including Joanne Hickey's editorial published here in JNN in the summer of 2011. INANE members were very lucky to have Susan Hassmiller, Director of the Future of Nursing Campaign for Action, personally outline the campaign's plans and initiatives for us and to help us create an INANE task force that would continue the dissemination of printed and Web-based information. Late in 2011, members of this task force participated in a telebriefing with Ms. Hassmiller and several other IOM panel members to discuss outcomes a year after the report was issued, to help us rethink our views of how nurses interact with patients and other healthcare professionals, and to look at ways in which nursing can provide the vital leadership that will underpin change.
Highlights of outcomes to date include (1) the creation of the Champion Nursing Coalition-a group that includes 48 national healthcare business and consumer advocacy organization; (2) the implementation of the CCNA's Champion Nursing Council-a group of 27 national health organizations who are integrating the IOM recommendations into their own agendas and strategic plans; (3) an agreement by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and the Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers to jointly collect and analyze workforce data across the country; and (4) 38 individual state action coalitions.
Other CCNA achievements include an analysis of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey results; the Leapfrog group has woven the IOM recommendations related to nursing leadership into its evaluation of facilities. Many nursing organizations-including ours, the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses (AANN)-have endorsed the report and are planning ways in which to give it life within their boundaries. Scope of practice issues are being addressed within the national legislative process, through federal legislation (e.g., the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid [CMS] have proposed a new rule that will change rules for "privileging" practitioners) and via a Federal Trade Commission agreement to examine the issue of state-based unfair and possibly anti-competitive barriers to advanced nursing practice.
Finally, the panel members addressed some of the educational concerns raised in the IOM report and other recent work related to nursing education, including Benner and colleagues' (2010) report for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The panel specifically talked about the creation of more nursing residency programs, the rethinking of nursing competencies, the need to provide the knowledge needed to "retool" practice for aging nurses who want to stay in the workforce. Of note was the discussion of changing academic and service partnerships and the continuing discordant discussion about the nature and quality of doctoral education within nursing itself.
In this issue of JNN, you will be able to read AANN's white paper-"Integrating the Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing Report Into the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses Strategic Plan." This work is our professional association's blueprint for change, a paper that ties the four key messages of the IOM report to our organizational strategic plan. The hope is that this will aid each of us in initiating change in the neurosciences; the white paper addresses scope of practice and the educational initiatives needed to support the broadest scope possible, leadership skills and their development that promote full partnerships with our healthcare colleagues, and planning and policy-making efforts that includes a new Advocacy Committee and Statement as well as the alliance and partnership relationships we have long held with other professional organizations.
The white paper is an important statement of AANN's belief in our vital role in the care and education of our patients and their families, in our commitment to excellence, through expertise, in the provision of this care, and in our goals for continuing development of neuroscience nursing leaders. Take time to read the paper carefully. Log on to the AANN website, the INANE website, or any of the Campaign for Nursing sites to expand your knowledge base and learn how you can become an active campaigner. When we look at the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened. Don't be left wondering!
Additional Information Relative to the Editorial and White Paper
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