Professional Development of Nursing Professionals

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Professional Development of Nursing Professionals With the ever changing healthcare system and the current efforts to revamp healthcare reform, it should come to no surprise that nurses are on the forefront of conversations regarding measures needed to help guide and maintain the changes to come. Attention has been drawn to the fact that the present nursing profession needs to be re-assessed and transformed to cope with the developments of the broadest healthcare overhaul since 1965 (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2012, para. 1). “The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) launched a two-year initiative to respond to the need to assess and transform the nursing profession” (IOM, 2012, para. 2). The research they conducted reveals the drastic, and undisputedly daunting, undertakings that will be needed to enhance the nursing profession, and enable growth in the evolving healthcare challenges ahead. The IOM reports that nurses need to be better educated, have a broadened scope of practice, one in which they can practice to their fullest extent, and they must be encouraged to take leadership roles, becoming active participants, and voices for change in healthcare reform. With so many changes that are already taking place, and more to come, the question about nursing remains, what is immediately needed for nurses to cope with the adjustments of healthcare, and how can we prepare the nursing community to better be able to navigate through the changes?
According to the IOM report (2011), changes in nursing care must begin by having a direct impact on education, practice, and nursing leadership of today. Their research offers the proposal that the necessary future reformation within nursing dynamics needs to, “(1) ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their education and training, (2) improve nursing education, (3) provide

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