Review The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity,” and explore the “Campaign for Action: State Action Coalition” website
Future of nursing 2020-2030
The healthcare industry is a dynamic field, one that is laced with different challenges and opportunities. To address the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities, organizations need to implement initiatives that are formed through concerted efforts, with the involvement of major industry stakeholders. This paper aims to discuss some of the available recommendations and initiatives that address some of the notable challenges in healthcare.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences was created through an Act of Congress and signed by President Lincoln in 1863. The National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine were established using the same charter in 1964 and 1970, respectively (Liverman et al., 2017). The entities were established as independent non-governmental institutions whose members were selected from peers in related fields. Doing so allows the organization to provide unbiased, analyzed, and independent observations and solutions to various science-related fields.
The work of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is to provide knowledge and expertise in diverse scientific disciplines, including healthcare-related fields, in seemingly complex issues (Liverman et al., 2017). The organization works by incorporating and providing unbiased scientific evidence that will help policy-making and solutions to complex issues that affect the US and global society.
One of the organization’s tenets is the principle of evidence-based practice, where it uses available gathered evidence to reach a meaningful conclusion that can help improve people’s livelihoods and the world. The academies encourage knowledge and research advancement and integration to facilitate the public understanding of issues concerning science, medicine, and engineering (Liverman et al., 2017).
Trends Occurring in the Nursing Workforce
One of the recent changes in the nursing workforce is the increased use of technology to drive healthcare improvements and efficiency in care delivery. Evidence suggests that increased integration of technology in healthcare is driving down healthcare costs and improving access to care while at the same time improving patient outcomes (Abdolkhani et al., 2022). With the increased adoption of healthcare technology and nursing education, I restructured to meet the need to integrate technology into the care delivery continuum; this includes the addition of telemedicine and electronic record-keeping in nursing practice.
Nurses play a critical role in leading change within the healthcare delivery spectrum. The first role that nurses play in leading change is the leadership role. One of the key ingredients to change is effective leadership. Most nurses join the profession with the expectation of becoming a leader within their area of influence. As such, the nursing education framework is increasingly advancing to nature transformative nurse leaders who can initiate positive change in their organization, the community, and the healthcare industry at large (Alzahrani, 2019).
Previous instances, for example, the recent COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrated that nurses have adequate leadership capabilities to steer change and provide solutions to complex healthcare issues. The current Future of Nursing report still encourages nurses to increasingly develop in leadership so that they can serve as full partners with other healthcare professionals by moving from the bedside to the boardroom (Flaubert et al., 2021).
The second role is the innovator role. Nurses act as change agents by levering their capabilities to use innovation and technology to improve better health outcomes at a lower cost (Snow, 2019). The third role is advocacy and a policy-making role where they advocate on behalf of their patients and other healthcare workers to improve the healthcare delivery system.
Role of State-Based Action Coalitions.
State-based action coalitions are a multi-sector coalition, not just healthcare, whose primary purpose is to transform healthcare and promote equity. The California Action Coalition has been at the forefront of driving significant change and implementing the “Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity” report. One of the ways the coalition has helped to advance the goals specified in the report is by training nurses, whereby the coalition continues to advocate for enhanced nurse education to meet the 80% threshold of BSN-prepared nurses by 2020.
The concerted efforts of the coalition and the state have seen an increase of 8.5% in BSN-prepared nurses, which now states at over 61% (Campaign For Action, n.d.). Additionally, in terms of le