Nursing Leader Lauds Institute of Medicine Report on the Future of Nursing For Recognizing Nurses’ Potential to Improve Care

 

“The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Nurse Faculty Scholars program strongly supports the recommendations included in the landmark Future of Nursing report released today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). As they are adopted, these recommendations will pave the way for developing a nursing workforce that is prepared to deliver quality patient-centered care in the 21st century. We are proud to say that the Nurse Faculty Scholars program is already a part of this effort.

 

Since 2008, we have been providing support for research as well as leadership training and mentoring opportunities to junior nursing faculty who show outstanding promise as future leaders in academic nursing. Through our work, we are helping to meet two of the report’s key recommendations: improving nursing education; and preparing and enabling nurses to lead change. As the report attests, we can only improve the quality of patient care through increasing the diversity of the nursing workforce, and our Nurse Faculty Scholars will be on the forefront of recruiting and retaining a more diverse student body and faculty, and providing leadership training. By developing the next generation of national leaders in academic nursing, the Nurse Faculty Scholars program is strengthening the academic productivity and overall excellence of nursing schools. By supporting junior nurse faculty, we are helping to curb a shortage of nurse educators that could undermine the health and health care of all Americans. 

 

We applaud the IOM for this important and influential report. The IOM committee clearly recognizes that the nursing profession has the potential to affect wide-reaching improvements in the health care system and directly improve patient care. If we are to achieve our vision of transforming our nation’s health care system into one in which all Americans can get the high-quality care we need, we simply must fulfill the promise of nursing. The Nurse Faculty Scholars program is honored to be a part of this effort.”

 

 

Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D., R.N, F.A.A.N., is the Anna D. Wolf Chair and Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, which provides technical direction to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar program (www.nursefacultyscholars.org). It is strengthening the academic productivity and overall excellence of nursing schools by developing the next generation of leaders in academic nursing by providing $28 million over five years to outstanding junior nursing faculty to promote their academic careers and reduce the national nurse and nurse faculty shortages.