1. Facilitating advanced education and a culture of learning
Not so long ago, earning a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) certificate was considered adequate training for most nurses. But today, with medical knowledge and medical technology increasing exponentially year after year, it is no longer adequate. According to the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice’s 2010 report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the medical knowledge base that had previously been doubling every five to eight years is expected to begin doubling every year. Nurses simply will not be able to keep up without advanced education and a system supporting lifelong learning.
Today’s advanced degree programs offer many opportunities for nurses, from master’s and PhD programs to specialized clinician training in fields as diverse as oncology nursing, cardiac nursing and genetics. These programs not only provide a deeper foundational understanding of clinical work and the issues affecting healthcare delivery, but they offer broader career paths, the chance to practice more independently and obtain better salaries. Yet in 2010, only 41% of nurses had bachelor’s degrees and far fewer – 12% – had master’s degrees.
Attracting more nurses to advanced degrees is a profoundly important goal and one that all academic institutions should work toward. We can do this by :
- Fostering a culture of lifelong learning through nursing organizations, schools of nursing, health care organizations and healthcare media.
- Promoting the benefits of advanced degrees to nursing students, including better choices of jobs, higher salaries, broader career path opportunities, and better patient outcomes.
- Expanding the available number of slots for students in advanced degree programs. Many schools are hampered by too few slots for too many eligible and eager students.
- Facilitating access to advanced degree learning through online RN to BSN education modules or evening, after-hours programs.
- Facilitating access to advanced degree funding through scholarships, tuition reimbursement programs, nurse association grants and Federal grants.
- Establishing a firm timeline by which a bachelor’s degree will be the new minimum required to practice nursing. The Future of Nursing Campaign has designated that we try to reach a goal of 80% of nurses having a baccalaureate degree by 2020. All believe that horizon is too far off, and that we must exceed the goal before 2020 in order to meet the demands on medical field. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) will, by 2015, require a mandatory doctoral degree for those who wish to become advance practice nurses.
By implementing these changes, we can be sure that the nurses of tomorrow are properly trained with the broad knowledge and skills they will need to best serve their patients and achieve the best outcomes.
2. Development of a National Nurse Residency (Transition-to-Practice) Program
With healthcare reform, hospitals and other health providers are being asked to meet extraordinary demands for better care at a lower cost. In the new regulatory environment, hospitals will be expected to take on more accountability, improve outcomes and better address costly critical and acute care. In many cases, reimbursement will shift to a fee-for-performance model and a hospital’s financial success will depend, at least in part, on its ability to prevent hospital-acquired conditions, reduce unnecessary readmissions and meet rigorous pre-determined metrics. In this environment, hospitals will be demanding the highest caliber nurse professionals with in-depth clinical practice experience, specialization in key areas such as oncology and geriatrics, proficiency with new technology, and the ability to work effectively with colleagues in case management and across all departments.
To keep pace, nursing programs have established accelerated nursing programs to quickly get nurses into practice. But we must do more than simply get nurses out on the floor. We must ensure that they are properly prepared to perform the complex, fast-paced and often overwhelming tasks found in the actual hospital setting. We must assure the safety of every patient by establishing universal nurse residency programs, to begin immediately after the completion of a nursing degree or before transitioning into a new area of clinical practice. This is not a new idea. Schools of nursing and hospitals have been working for years to get such programs into place, but they are costly, and many have been abandoned due to lack of funding and an absence of advocacy by opinion leaders and policy makers. Nurse leaders must continue to rally schools of nursing, nursing coalitions, state boards of nursing, appropriate credentialing organizations and the Federal government to determine a clear path for the development, funding and implementation of these programs.
3. Increased diversity and transcultural/transgenerational training
As our population shifts to include more minorities and as the number of seniors and centenarians doubles and triples, nurses must be better prepared to communicate in more languages, and to better understand a range of cultural and aging issues. At universities like UCLA School of Nursing, not only do we continue to diversify our faculty, students and staff to ensure a true transcultural nursing school, but we also send our students and faculty researchers to other areas of the world to broaden their depth of understanding of culturally sensitive care and to collaborate on key health issues in developing nations. Through an international exchange of ideas and research collaborations, nurses are addressing important health challenges and pushing the scientific and medical boundaries as never before. The results include research collaboration on everything from smoking cessation to HIV/AIDs, the establishment of new international scientific conferences and expanded opportunities for Federal and international grants. Ultimately, the true winners are our patients, as our increasingly global perspective translates to better care for all.
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