There’s no time to let moss grow under the feet of the medical profession. There are plenty of recommendations in this report that could be instituted with a minimum of delay. Some will cost money. Others will require new models to make them work. But the goal is essential and there is no time to waste.
- Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training
- Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression
- Nurses should be full partners, with physicians and other health care professionals, in redesigning health care in the United States.
- Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure.
In its recommendations, the committee suggested that Medicare and Medicaid should reimburse advanced-practice nurses for providing the same care provided by their colleagues. "When you do the same job, you ought to be paid the same," said Dr. Donna Shalala, who chaired the committee on the future of nursing.
Increasing access to care and utilizing nurses’ full capacity prompts such recommendations as changing regulatory barriers that prevent advanced practice nurses from admitting patients to the hospital or to a hospice. The reports calls for the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to review existing scope-of-practice provisions for "anticompetitive" practices.
Is all of this feasible? Yes it is. But it will take dedication and drive to make it happen sooner before the next crisis in health care bursts to the surface.
-Afaf I. Meleis, Dean University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Read more about the Initiative on the Future of Nursing
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