Professional Development of Nursing Essay

Introduction

The Institute of Medicine report concerns various issues and problems in nursing, e.g. nursing education and practice, right leadership skills, and the Government’s role in the transformation of the medical system.

Nursing Education

The IOM report draws the reader’s attention to the importance of education for nurses and reviews its development in the XXI century. As the population of the United States grows older and often suffers from chronic conditions such as diabetes and mental illnesses, the education that is based on evidence and research from the XX century becomes irrelevant. According to the IOM, high-quality care implies that nurses are competent in leadership and health policy. Moreover, evidence-based practice is also a cornerstone of modern medicine as it provides a more profound approach to patients and their treatment.Professional Development of Nursing Essay

As it is mentioned in the report, nursing education is focused on acute care and neglects other aspects such as primary care and long-term care (The IOM, 2010a). Although education facilities try to engage new information from studies and relevant sources in their programs, nursing curricula need to be reviewed and reexamined to ensure that they can respond adequately to the demands of clinical practice.

Although future nurses can choose different paths to their career (e.g. bachelor’s of science in nursing or associate’s degree in nursing), the BSN is considered to be the most suitable choice as it provides a broad range of information about health policy, public and community health, leadership, etc. (The IOM, 2010a). Thus, if more students are eager to become BSNs, it can be expected that future nurses will be more educated and better qualified for the sets of tasks that they need to perform.Professional Development of Nursing Essay

Nursing Practice

According to the IOM report, the primary barrier that nurses have to face is the legislative one. Although nurses are trained and educated to provide a wide set of different services, specific laws and regulations do not allow them to provide these services, even if nurses are qualified. The health care system is changing, and nurses discover new ways of how they can provide primary care instead of specialty care. As states have different prescriptions, some nurses have limited possibilities to provide primary care, although they are qualified for this type of service. However, the USA does not have enough primary care physicians, and this lack of professionals leads to severe consequences. If nurses are regarded as equal to primary care physicians, the country will be able to resolve the problem of lacking primary care.Professional Development of Nursing Essay