Nursing Workforce: Education Trends and Role in Leading Change

Future of Nursing Report
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The upcoming decade will likely put the country's approximately 4 million nurses to the test concerning their ability to operate in a highly complex healthcare environment. Nurses practice and live at the point where education, health, and communities intersect. They practice in diverse settings and at professional levels. The National Academy of Medicine, under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sought to revise its 2010 report and integrate measures tailored to charting nursing practice's future and achieve health equity. It is necessary to evaluate different aspects with respect to the recently published report to contribute to the limited knowledge of its applicability and role in supporting nursing and healthcare sustainability. This paper delineates the National Academy of Medicine's work that led to the report's release, trends in nursing training and workforce, and the nurse's role in leading reforms within this context. It also discusses the role of state-based action coalitions in advancing the report's goals and visions. Lastly, the paper discusses Florida's state action coalition's initiatives and their role in supporting the nursing profession, including the barriers to their advancement.
The Work that Led to the Report
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's (NASEM) long-awaited report, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, emanated from the need to inspire the realization of health equity within the United States (U.S.) centered on building improved nursing capacity, expertise, and diversity. The report, published in May 2021, offers a paradigm shift in nursing and the healthcare sector at large. Many nurses struggle with burnout and exhaustion and have persevered moral injury from the increased number of patients seeking care for Covid-19-related issues. The health crisis revealed America's inherent and increasingly deteriorating health disparities. The disparities and other healthcare issues prompted the need to chart the path for the nursing practice to cultivate a culture of wellbeing and health, address the worsening health disparities, and improve the overall wellbeing and health of the country (Hassmiller & Wakefield, 2022). In addition, NASEM delayed publishing the report to include significant lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nursing Workforce and Education Trends and Role in Leading Change
Competencies and domains for achieving healthcare equity are on the trend in nursing workforce education geared at outlining and delineating what needs to be recognized and done to address health equity and social determinants of health (SDOH). There is also increased advocacy for nursing education to cover key areas, including epidemiology and biostatics, policy and its effects on healthcare outcomes, as well as systems thinking techniques, and the capacity to design novel solutions and tailor adjustments at macro and micro systems tiers (Flaubert et al., 2021). Nursing education adapts to the change by acknowledging that specialized competencies and aptitudes will change based on the nurse's education level. Thus, programs must be streamlined to allow nurse specialization and ensure they practice per their skills and competencies. For example, a BSN nurse may be required to understand and operate technologies appropriate to their domain, including home monitors, electronic health records, and telehealth applications (Flaubert et al., 2021). Nevertheless, nursing programs at different levels should integrate the educational domains and competencies to acquire relevant expertise in achieving health equity and care.
Nurses play a central role in mentoring the next nursing leaders and professionals. The transformation toward healthcare delivery processes that are increasingly fair and equitable to everyone will need laying the proper framework to support the ability of the upcoming nurse managers to practice in diverse settings. Mentorship is vital for healthcare workers, especially as they assume novel and complex leadership roles. Nurse managers and leaders should mentor subordinate staff in diverse ca...