NRS 430 Topic 4 Professional Development of Nursing Professionals
Professional Development of Nursing Professionals
Healthcare delivery continues to evolve in many aspects, including focus areas, workforce capacity, and the role of nursing professionals and leaders. Much effort can be witnessed in nursing research, policies, and education, among other initiatives that help to address complex healthcare problems facing different populations. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity report underscores the nurses’ role in improving health and ensuring its accessibility to everyone. Achieving this goal requires a nursing workforce committed to its professional mandate and able to enhance capacity as time advances. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of the report on nursing practice.
The Significance of Health Equity in the National Academy of Medicine2021 Report
The National Academy of Medicine 2021 report proposes several recommendations for advancing health in all communities and addressing social determinants of health (SDOH). Recommendation 8 aims to enable nurses to address inequities within communities, federal agencies, and other stakeholders (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). Health equity is significant in this report since it is the foundation of a healthcare system that works for everyone. As the report highlights, health equity will be achieved by a strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. In this case, nursing will be critical in aligning public health, social services, and policies to eliminate health disparities (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). Eliminating health equity problems to ensure a healthcare system that works for everyone is also the spine of healthy, productive societies. It will ensure a healthy nation, reduce the gaps across populations, and ensure more participation in healthcare.
Social Determinants of Health
All individuals and groups require accessible and affordable healthcare that addresses their health problems comprehensively. Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the environmental conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age (Hahn, 2021). They affect everyone and include health and health care, built environments, economic stability, and education. These determinants have a high potential to affect people’s health, functioning, and life quality. Health and health care SDOH impact health equity significantly, particularly access and health literacy (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). Typically, populations experiencing access barriers like nursing shortages and inadequate facilities cannot achieve full health potential, the primary objective of health equity. Health literacy determines how individuals perceive and interpret health. Illiteracy, such as poor knowledge on the value of immunization, can increase risk and contribute to poor health in some communities if their knowledge and behaviors discourage healthy living.
Role of the Nurse in Improving Health Equity and Impacting Social Needs
Nurses’ role in improving health equity and impacting social needs is multifaceted, combining individual and organizational strategies to optimize healthy living. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report stresses the importance of a workforce that can improve health equity and address SDOH through case management and team-based care. Their work should be grounded in social justice, call for action, and community health advocacy (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). Given this, the first nurse’s role is to ensure their availability as healthcare professionals and to be committed to providing everyone with a just opportunity to maximize their health potential. Nurses should also propose and participate in policies that advance system changes to improve healthcare delivery. Focus areas of these policies include better access, affordability, and equity (Shrank et al., 2021). For instance, partnering with policymakers and influential individuals like politicians can help to create policies that address healthcare access problems in rural areas. A suitable example is advocating for full practice authority nationwide to enable nurse practitioners to work to the full extent of their education and training (Recommendation 4).
Significance of Self-Care for Nursing Burnout and Strategies for Personal and Spiritual Health
Nurses are highly vulnerable to burnout due to the complexity and highly demanding nature of their work. To address SDOH and promote health equity, nurses should feel healthy and get adequate support (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). In this case, work demands and personal health should not deter nurses’ ability to provide safe, high-quality care. Monroe et al. (2021) identified burnout as a risk to patient outcomes since it increases job dissatisfaction and workplace stress. Poor nurses’ well-being stemming from burnout further causes nurse turnover and high healthcare costs. Self-care is highly recommended for nurses to decrease burnout by improving their mental, physical, spiritual, and social health (Kaple, 2023). Neglecting self-care hampers nurses’ well-being, increasing fatigue and creating a workforce unable to cope with routine exhaustion.
Nurses can use various self-care and evidence-based self-care strategies to maintain personal and spiritual care. They include sleep hygiene, regular exercise, mindfulness, and work-life balance (Kaple, 2023; Williams et al., 2022). The importance of enough sleep and physical exercises cannot be overlooked as far as nurse burnout is concerned. The same applies to mindfulness strategies that help nurses to regulate emotions and cope with stressful situations (Williams et al., 2022). Mindfulness-based exercises, such as yoga and meditation, also improve nurses’ spiritual health, resulting in more calmness when working. Combining these strategies enables nurses to be happy, present, mindful, and able to provide high-quality care.
Conclusion
Nurses should be committed to promoting health and addressing issues that hamper healthy living. The Future of Nursing Report 2021 recommends various measures for an empowered nursing workforce able to address SDOH and advance health equity. Implementing these recommendations requires the active participation of healthcare stakeholders and nurses’ presence as primary care providers. Continuous system-level changes are also important to improve nurses’ capacity and expertise, as the report recommends.
References
Hahn, R. A. (2021). What is a social determinant of health? Back to basics. Journal of Public Health Research, 10(4), 2324. https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2021.2324
Kaple, T. (2023). Tips from nurses on dealing with burnout. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/resources/tips-for-avoiding-nurse-burnout/
Monroe, C., Loresto, F., Horton-Deutsch, S., Kleiner, C., Eron, K., Varney, R., & Grimm, S. (2021). The value of intentional self-care practices: The effects of mindfulness on improving job satisfaction, teamwork, and workplace environments. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 35(2), 189–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.10.003
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2021). The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity (2021). The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25982
Shrank, W. H., DeParle, N. A., Gottlieb, S., Jain, S. H., Orszag, P., Powers, B. W., & Wilensky, G. R. (2021). Health costs and financing: Challenges and strategies for a new administration: Commentary recommends health cost, financing, and other priorities for a new US administration. Health Affairs, 40(2), 235-242. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01560
Williams, S. G., Fruh, S., Barinas, J. L., & Graves, R. J. (2022). Self-care in nurses. Journal of Radiology Nursing, 41(1), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jradnu.2021.11.001
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Review the National Academy of Medicine’s 2021 report, “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity,” located in the topic Resources.
Write a 750?1,000-word paper discussing the influence of the report on nursing practice. Include the following:
- Review the recommendations of The National Academy of Medicine 2021 report and explain why health equity is significant in this report.
- Define social determinants of health. Discuss one of the determinants and how this impacts health equity.
- Describe the role nurses have in improving health equity and impacting social needs.
- Discuss the significance of self-care to decrease nursing burnout. What self-care and evidence-based strategies are available for nurses to maintain personal and spiritual health?
Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, and Ch. 10 The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, by Wakefield Williams, Le Menestrel, and Flaubert (Eds.), from the National Academies Press (2021)