In: Nursing
The idea of increasing the portion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80% emeged way before the IOM 2010 The Future of Nursing Recommendation but it was only after this recommendation that gave this idea some weight. This idea of increasing the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree from 50% to 80% by 2020 looks very good on paper but is very hard to achieve. But some determined and encouraging steps can be taken to make this possible. Academic nurse leaders have to play the most crucial role across all nursing schools in order to achieve this. They have to team up with other fellow members of primary and secondary school systems, education accrediting institutions, raise funds from private and public sectors and manage the effeciency as well as diversity of the young upcoming students preparing to provide a qaulity care to a diverse population of the United States.
Different health education bodies should collaborate and collectively create a continual inter-branch or inter occupational educational design like joint classroom and clinical training. The federal government along with other state governments should implement a more expanded and simplified loans and grants programs that can easily accessible to a majority of the second-degree nursing students. Apart from just articulating agreements, prominent nursing bodies like National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission and The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education should work together to promote higher education in nursing. Other major role has to be taken by state healthcare facilities in encouraging the existing workforce of nurses to enter baccalaureate nursing programs and provided adequate reimbursement for continuing education in such programs. Lastly, initiatives like expanded scholarships, loan forgiveness, extra hiring of qualified teachers and collaboration of private and public funders can possibly improve the diversity of the nursing personnel.