State Based Efforts to Support Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action

Many states are striving to make changes to do their part in advancing nursing goals. These coalitions are critical to make changes in nursing practice and meet the needs of future healthcare. New Mexico not unlike many states in the United States face critical nursing shortages now and increasing in the future. The New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence (NMCNE) was established in 2002. Their main goal is to advocate for nursing profession to better meet the healthcare needs of New Mexico Residents and achieve the recommendations of the IOM report.

One of the projects to help support the implementation of IOM recommendations in the states is working with the University of New Mexico to better understand the effects of nursing shortage on the State of New Mexico. The NMCNE has initiated a study to examine the current and future projected needs of the nursing workforce in the state as more and more of the workforce plans to retire and needs of healthcare increases. Current Studies reveal that the increase in entrants to nursing profession trend should cover the number of nurses retiring and will help to maintain an even number of registered nurses. While the number of nurses remain stable the current number of nurses still will not meet the future needs of an aging population. Problems are noted with not having enough qualified nursing instructors to continue to train new nurses. As nursing wages have increased it was noted that the pay of nursing instructors has not. This imbalance leads to not having enough qualified nursing instructors therefore limiting the number of new nurses allowed into the programs throughout the state.

In 2010 the New Mexico Board of Nursing and the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence sponsored a report to the House that prescribed a statewide plans for nursing education. This plan identified the need for more instructors to teach and nursing schools in response to the shortage of qualified instructors. This plan also included the need to increase the number of Baccalaureate trained nurses in the state which support the IOM recommendations of having at least 80% of Nurses with BSN or higher in the workforce. The New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence (NMCNE) has worked to developed partnerships with community colleges and four year universities to develop a curriculum that supports the BSN trained Registered Nurse.

New Mexico Nursing Education Consortium (NMNEC) has worked to develop a curriculum which has 2 tracks. One track starts with an Associate Degree program and the other is in 4 year universities. Unlike many where many nurses complete a 2 year ADN program then end with licensing as a registered nurse at which time the nurse has the option to go back for higher learning at a later date. The NMNEC curriculum provides a continued progression toward the BSN without leaving the community college and community they reside in. Unlike many 2 year plus 2 year programs the student works simultaneously for their ADN and BSN program but attends school at the 2 years college in their home area. This is accomplished by attending bachelor level courses that are taught in the community college. This has far reaching goals of offering BSN programs where no 4-year university exist, allowing more students to study and graduate that do not reside in big metropolitan cities. Currently the programs are available in the Santa Fe Community College, New Mexico Junior College, San Juan College. The Goal is that by fall of 2017 this curriculum will be available in all public institutions. These programs aims to increase the number of BSN trained Registered nurses in the state which is one of the IOM report recommendations (Evans-Prior, Morton, & Brady, 2014).

Conclusion

Overall the IOM report recommendations have the ability to completely change the landscape of nursing in the United States. These changes are needed for the nursing community to keep up with allow healthcare in the united states to thrive. Increasing the level of education and training while allowing nurses to work at their educational potential will only help healthcare in a time when healthcare and the lives of Americans is at stake. Nurses play a key role as leaders in making these changes a reality.