2002 AJN Table of Contents
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Issues Update
American Journal of Nursing -
July, 2002 - Volume 102, Issue 7
Envisioning a Brighter Future
Imagine a world in which nurses have satisfying and safe working environments; are influential in shaping health care policy at the local, state, and national levels; and are fully recognized as professionals who possess the knowledge and expertise that make a crucial difference in people’s lives.
That’s the future national nursing organizations envision for the profession, and they’ve created a plan to make this vision a reality over the next several years.
Nursing’s Agenda for the Future focuses on strategies that will move the profession forward by quantum leaps while preventing a potentially dire nursing shortage by the year 2010. It was created with the input of more than 60 national nursing organizations.
“Nursing created this plan for its future and to ensure the future quality of health care,” said Linda J. Stierle, MSN, RN, CNAA, chief executive officer of the ANA. “It focuses on addressing the root causes of the nursing shortage. And it reflects the brain trust of nursing and includes strategies to address basic issues, such as recruitment, and also more complex issues, such as the economic value of nursing.”
Planting The Seed
In mid-2001, the ANA brought together representatives from 19 other nursing organizations to serve on a steering committee that would investigate how best to ensure an adequate nursing workforce. With a grant of $100,000 from the American Nurses Foundation, the ANA organized “Call to the Nursing Profession,” a summit held in September, 2001, where more than 100 nursing leaders from 60 nursing organizations were asked to determine the profession’s desired future and what it would take to get there.
At that summit, nurse leaders identified 10 domains or areas of concern that must be acted upon if their vision of nursing’s future is to be achieved. They are leadership and planning; delivery systems/nursing models; legislation/regulation/policy; professional/nursing culture; recruitment and retention; economic value; work environment; public relations/communications; education; and diversity. Summit participants subsequently developed strategies and objectives for each domain.
Now, steering committee members are asking the entire nursing community to get involved. Specifically, they want nursing groups to take the first step—reviewing the document—and then agree to implement parts of the plan that best match their mission, priorities, and resources.
“The intent is to involve as many nurses as possible in
charting their own future. It is this critical second step that will bring the strategic plan to life, move it forward and make progress toward the desired future state,” nursing leaders wrote in the plan.
Nursing organizations already have begun working to implement some strategies outlined in Nursing’s Agenda. RN groups have submitted more than 200 “action plans” detailing how their ongoing work and new initiatives meet some of the goals in Nursing’s Agendaˆ Those same groups and others will take on more targeted, larger-scale projects in 2003 with the guidance of the steering committee.
In addition, steering committee members currently are determining where there are gaps in the plan that can be addressed through the support of external stakeholders, such as consumer groups, business leaders, and policy makers.
A Look at The Future
The following is just a brief look at some of the domains and the actions that must be taken to achieve an adequate and appropriate nursing workforce.
Regarding RNs’ economic value, the plan calls for a future state of nursing in which “nurses are recognized as providers of quality, cost-effective health care, compensated for their value and supported through public policy.”
To achieve that state, nursing’s leaders want a comprehensive database of evidence-based research that establishes links between nursing services and quality, cost-effective care. They also want to push for passage of state tax relief for nurses, as well as develop a reimbursement model that details costs associated with the services nurses provide.
In the area of delivery systems and nursing models, Nursing’s Agenda encourages nurses to unite “to create integrated
models of health care delivery through education, research, practice and public policy partnerships that improve the health of the nation.”
Steps to help nursing achieve that goal include individual RNs and national nursing organizations working together to secure stable funding to support the creation, implementation, and evaluation of innovative inter.disciplinary practice models led or co-led by nurses. Nurses also must take charge of developing and evaluating staffing and acuity models that show RNs’ positive influence on patient outcomes. And they want basic, graduate, and continuing nursing education curricula to include information on health care economics and financial practices.
In addressing the work environment, nurse leaders envision, in part, a future in which “nurses provide quality care in dynamic and satisfying environments that utilize their specialized skills and knowledge.”
To achieve a satisfying workplace, the plan calls for developing infrastructures within health care organizations that promote RNs’ participation in decision-making at all levels, including the unit and higher; boost nurses’ participation in health policy agencies and on strategic health care boards; and develop and promote evidence-based systems that guide staffing and resource allocation.
On the legislation, regulation, and policy front, Nursing’s Agenda calls for a future in which: “Nurses develop evidence-based health policy in collaboration with consumers to ensure access to health care services and safe, competent nursing care.”
To that end, nursing leaders want to establish a one-stop, Web-based network in which nursing organizations can access current legislation and regulations, as well as communicate with each other when nurses must mobilize on a particular issue. They also want to create a national grassroots system to educate nurses about the public policy process and cultivate nurse experts who can serve in critical positions within their institutions and in state and federal posts.
As part of the vision for nursing’s culture, the plan states, “Nurses embrace their professional responsibility and accountability, including: collaborating, mentoring, promoting diversity and adhering to standards and ethical codes of professional practice.”
To ensure the fulfillment of that vision, efforts must be made to promote RN participation in professional nursing organizations, increase the number of
certification programs and encourage certification as a critical piece of a nurse’s professional life, and strengthen nurse managers’ skills to promote a professional culture in their workplaces.
Regarding recruitment and retention, the report states, “Nursing is comprised of a diverse body of individuals committed to promoting and sustaining the profession through addressing diversity, image, education, funding, practice models and environments, and professional development.”
Nursing leaders recommend addressing diversity issues by promoting increased funding to support minority enrollment in nursing programs, recruiting retired nurses who can form a professional mentoring corps, and working with schools of nursing, professional organizations, and practice sites to offer standardized internships and residencies.
Reaching Beyond Nursing
“It is clear to us that the nursing shortage is a national public health crisis,” said Anne Manton, PhD, RN, FAAN, co-chair of the Nursing Organization Liaison Forum, a coalition of 74 national nursing organizations. “Therefore, the driving issues are many and complex, and it will take the collective commitment and support of society to forge a long-term solution. We put this plan forward as a tool to galvanize other stakeholders to join nursing in its work to strengthen the profession to ensure the health and well-being of the nation.”
RN leaders plan to promote Nursing’s Agenda outside the nursing community at another summit to be held in late 2002 or early 2003. Policy-makers, consumers, various health care providers, and representatives from other groups who have a stake in the nation’s future health care needs will be invited to the “Call to the Nation” meeting.
“It’s our hope that the community at large will rally around our plan, because everyone’s health is on the line if there aren’t enough nurses,” said Mary Foley, MS, RN, who was president at the time of the plan’s release. “And, it’s our hope that once Nursing’s Agenda is implemented, men and women from diverse backgrounds will see nursing as a viable career that will keep them engaged and satisfied throughout their entire working lives.”
Nursing’s Agenda for the Future, which includes a list of the organizations on the steering committee and those that participated in the “Call to the Nursing Profession” summit, is available at www.NursingWorld.org/naf
Susan Trossman is the senior reporter for the American Nurse at the ANA.
Nursing organizations develop a plan to ensure an adequate RN workforce.
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