This month represents 20 years since Nursing made Incredibly Easy! was officially launched. The past 20 years have been filled with many discoveries and advances in healthcare and the journal has been a trusted resource for nurses every step of the way. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 began the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care. This move has instilled the importance of providing evidence-based care as a catalyst to improved patient outcomes. Healthcare systems have been redesigned with the adoption of the electronic healthcare record, used in over 96% of nonfederal funded, acute care organizations in the US. Precision medicine, population health initiatives, and advances in cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, trauma, hepatitis, HIV, and the access to naloxone for laypeople have extended the lives of many Americans. Nursing made Incredibly Easy! has covered this and other cutting-edge information year after year.
Twenty years ago, we were just emerging from a nursing shortage, and here we are once again. It was estimated that 1.1 million nurses would be needed to fill the gap of retiring nurses by 2030, and to keep up with population growth. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the nursing workforce impacted in a way never seen before.
The COVID-19 patient surge was enormous and quickly overwhelmed healthcare organizations. The demand for nurses to care for critically ill patients was extremely high. Yet, the supply of nurses was insufficient to meet the demand. Resources and supplies were inadequate, especially when it came to personal protective equipment for the healthcare staff. Caring for patients with COVID-19 was extremely difficult; being a novel virus, we had no experience or research on how to manage these patients. As the pandemic went on, published research, review articles, case reports, and guidelines on managing these critically ill patients changed frequently and, in some cases, daily. Nursing-care models changed from primary RN to team-based nursing because of the inadequate number of competent staff available to care for the high census. Healthcare organizations learned they needed to be agile and offer more flexible shifts to their workforce so they could address their family needs as well as their patients' needs.
In nursing education, we quickly recognized that the way we train nursing students needed to change and we moved from in-person to digital learning. We developed simulations to supplement clinical experience and we recognized the need to establish partnerships between academia and practice to address the attrition of new graduates in their first year of practice. Orientation programs evolved to provide more self-directed learning and training opportunities coupled with enhanced clinical experiences. Healthcare organizations started investing in nurse residency programs to provide better engagement and retain new nurses.
Workforce resiliency, burnout, and moral distress became issues across all healthcare disciplines. As the pandemic dragged into its second year, younger nurses started leaving the profession at a rate that wasn't anticipated. Further, the US continued to contend with health inequities, challenges to diversity and inclusion, and divisiveness, and often these issues spilled over into our healthcare settings.
Throughout it all, one thing has been consistent. Nursing made Incredibly Easy! has been there, reporting on the latest advances and issues in healthcare, and providing the latest evidence-based practice guidance to inform our clinical decision-making. The journal refreshes our knowledge on diseases and conditions, and it addresses the most pressing issues in healthcare in a nonpartisan way.
The contributors to Nursing made Incredibly Easy! know that healthcare is evolving quickly, and new information is published at a break-neck pace. The journal's mission is to provide evidence-based information that's easy to understand and implement into practice. All nurses want to provide the best care for their patients; Nursing made Incredibly Easy! continues to be the trusted resource for nurses so they can be confident and competent in their patient care. Here's to another 20 years of making a difference!