The Future of Nursing

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) will have a great effect on nursing. According to this article nursing will have to change it role in the ACA and the three main categories that need to be changed and redeveloped is transforming practice, education and leadership. “The ACA outlines some new health care arrangements, and with these structures will come new opportunities for new roles. Nurses have the opportunity to play a central role in transforming the health care system to create a more accessible, high-quality, and value-driven environment for patients.
If the system is to capitalize on this opportunity, however, the constraints of outdated policies, regulations, and cultural barriers, including those related to scope of practice, will have to be lifted, most notably for advanced practice registered nurses. ” (IOM, 2010, p. 85) “The ACA will place many demands on health professionals. The legislation has begun the long process of shifting the focus of the U. S. health care system away from acute and specialty care. ” (IOM, 2010, p.
86) “When the system takes on another additional 32 million people soon to be covered by health insurance under the ACA would receive care in the coming years, it identified as a serious barrier. ” (, 2010, p. 96) “If the United States is to achieve the necessary transformation of its health care system, the evidence points to the importance of relying on nurses in enhanced roles. ” (IOM, 2010, pg. 87) This article however complain about number of educational grants and scholarships available and most individuals seek nursing education must finance it themselves.

Yes because all college nursing programs are filled every year and cannot support more nursing programs these are filled by the private sector which requires student loans. However there is an abundance of money offered by United States’ government does provide more federal student loans than ever before.
“Student loan debt as of first quarter of 2012 was up to $904 billion which is up $241 Billion form a decade ago and it is said to reach well over trillion dollars by the end of the year. ” (American Progress, 2012) “There is not enough nursing faculty to teach the current number of nursing students, let alone the number of qualified applicants who wish to pursue nursing. ” (Allan & Aldebron, 2008, p. 214) “The ACA and the need for APRNs, nurse faculty, and nurse researchers would have increased dramatically under any scenario. ” (L R Cronenwett [RWJF Iniative on the Future of Nursing], 2010, table 1). “Not only must schools of nursing build their capacity to prepare more students. Nursing need to focus on fundamental improvements in the delivery of nursing care to improve patient safety and quality is key. ” (IOM, 2010, p. 208)
Those involved in the health care system—nurses, physicians, patients, and others—play increasingly interdependent roles. Leaders who merely give directions and expect them to be followed will not succeed in this environment. What is needed is a style of leadership that involves working with others as full partners in a context of mutual respect and collaboration (A Pearson, H Laschinger, K Porritt, Z Jordan, D Tucker and L Long [International Journal of Evidence-Based health Care], 2007, p. 224). Looking to the future, nurse leaders will need the skills and knowledge to understand and anticipate population trends. (IOM, 2010, p. 234)
In conclusion The Affordable Care Act of 2010 will place many demands on health care professionals, and it will offer many opportunities to create a system that is more patient centered. The will be much focus on these three initial roles practice, education and leadership. We still must remember the system is getting 34 more million people and a push for changing our current system from acute care to a preventive system and this will not happen overnight. It is 2014 and most of us still do not know what is in this health care law, how it will affect us and what it will cost us?
Let alone what it will take to change practice, education and leadership across the whole country. This undertaking may take decades to implement. We could have only wished this law was written by doctors and nursing professional with details about where and how the system would be changing yet it was written by lawyer, lobbyist and our Congress that was more concerned about pushing it through than reading it. Nursing is definitely going to play a huge role in this transformation and yes the practice, education and leadership is going to be part of the key of getting this done.