Discuss how the change process is similar to the nursing process.
Furthermore, the IOM makes eight recommendations:
● Remove scope-of-practice barriers. ● Expand opportunities for nurses to lead and diffuse collaborative improvement efforts. ● Implement nurse residency programs. ● Increase the proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees to 80 percent by 2020. ● Ensure nurses engage in lifelong learning. ● Prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health. ● Build an infrastructure for the collection and analysis of interprofessional health care
workforce data (IOM, 2010).
The Nurse as Change Agent A change agent is one who works to bring about a change. Being a change agent, however, is not easy. Although the end result of change may benefit nurses and patients alike, initially it requires time, effort, and energy, all in short supply in the high-stress environment of health care.
Several recent reports document nurses’ roles in facilitating change. Holtrop et al. (2008) found that nurse consultants improved healthy behaviors in patients served by 10 primary care practices in two health care systems. Also, MacDavitt, Cieplincki, and Walker (2011) report that small changes in communication resulted in improved patient satisfaction on a pediatric inpatient unit. Finally, McMurray et al. (2010) found that nurse managers played a key role in implementing successful change in bedside handover in two hospitals.
Changes will continue at a rapid pace with or without nursing’s expert guidance. Nurses, like organizations, cannot afford merely to survive changes. If they are to exist as a distinct pro- fession that has expertise in helping individuals respond to actual or potential health problems,