AANP comments on the IOM report the future of nursing: leading change, advancing health
Posted about 14 years ago by Stanley F Whittaker
The expert panelists convened by AANP unanimously endorse the IOM/RWJF report on the future of nursing and its recommendations. Adopting its action steps would maximize nurse practitioners’ contribution to meeting the goals of high-quality health care. In this document, the expert panel has emphasized three recommendations that deserve top priority for immediate implementation.
Current circumstances also suggest that this document is notable for what the experts are not requesting:
We are not asking to expand scope of practice. Nurse practitioners simply need to be liberated from unwarranted restrictions on an existing scope of practice, as recommended in depth by the IOM/RWJF report.
We are not asking for more money. Everyone realizes that our country cannot keep spending more on health care. On the other hand, nurse practitioners can reduce the overall cost of care if policies are revised to eliminate unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy under current levels of spending.
The members of the AANP Expert Panel are asking for strong action, across political and professional lines, in order to move toward an efficient and effective health care system. The IOM/RWJF report provides abundant, compelling, unchallenged evidence that nurse practitioners are part of the solution—not part of the problem.
At the bottom line, now is the time to give consumers the freedom to choose among all qualified providers by removing scope-of-practice barriers, expanding collaborative efforts to provide high-quality care, and building data bases to improve health at current levels of spending. Under new economic and political circumstances, we can afford no more and we deserve no less.