Nursing is a healthcare profession, and nurses play a vital role in caring for individuals, families, and communities. Their main aim is to heighten the quality of life and sustain the optimal health of patients. In order to achieve these goals, nurses dedicate themselves by adhering to the IOM recommendations which give a clear guideline on future nursing care. By highlighting the fourth, fifth and, of course, the sixth recommendations, we can see the need to empower practicing nurses’ and, of course, high school students’ intent on pursuing nursing. The fourth recommendation states that the proportion of nurseswith a baccalaureatedegree should be increased to 80 percent by 2020. This is very important since an increase in workforce will effectively serve the demands of the massive population. This recommendation also points out the need for the academic nurse leaders to work together in order to achieve this goal. These leaders are called upon to work together with public and private funders, accrediting bodies, and employers to make sure that there is an increase in the diversity of students as far as creating a workforce that will meet the demands of the people is concerned.
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A high school student’s intent on pursuing nursing stands to benefit because this recommendation requires the formation of important linkages between academic nurse leaders and leaders of secondary school systems and other community organizations to recruit and advance diverse nursing students. This move is very important because introducing this young generation to nursing at an early stage will induct them into the nursing experience. They will also receive motivation as they familiarize themselves with nursing knowledge. This is invaluable as students will appreciate and conceptualize nursing as intended with the help of revered nursing theorists such as Florence Nightingale and Jean Watson.
The fifth recommendation states that the number of doctorate nurses should be doubled by 2020. This is to be achieved by monitoring the program of each nursing school to ensure that at least 10 percent of all baccalaureate graduates enroll into a postgraduate program within 5 years after graduation. It also highlights the need for academic administrators and university trustees to create salary and benefit packages that are market competitive to recruit and retain highly qualified academic and clinical nurse faculty. The relevance of this recommendation to a high school scholar who wants to be a nurse lies in the fact that he or she will be in a position to acquire high level and high quality nursing education. This would be made easier by the expansion of funding programs towards supporting the high level of nursing education. These funds are to be provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Department of Labor. The sixth recommendation encourages nurses to engage in lifelong learning. It calls upon nursing schools, health care organizations, and educators from diverse health professions to make sure that the nurses and nursing students continue with their education and engage in lifelong learning to gain the competencies needed for providing care to the diverse population that is concerned (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2008).This is to be achieved through prioritizing competencies by the healthcare organizations so that the curricula can be updated regularly in order to ensure that graduates at all levels are ready and well prepared to meet the current and the future needs of population as far as health is concerned. Since education is endless, academic administrators are asked to participate in continuing professional development and to perform with competence in practice, teaching, and research. By updating programs regularly, there will be the sense of learning the correct material and the learners getting the correct content that is in accordance with the current needs. The students willing to participate in nursing will always be informed and will be in a position to get the correct content since lifelong learning entails a lot of updating in the curricula. This is because people get new knowledge and skills if they do not stop learning or if they engage in endless learning (Wuchty, 2007).
There are numerous job prospects for individuals with basic high school education. Needless to say, most of these are menial jobs with less attractive salaries. They include fire fighting, fire inspection, building inspector or even building plans examiner after completing a voluntary certificate program. One can also be a cashier, a chef, a food preparatory worker, a cosmetologist, a hairstylist, and a travel agent among other small posts that do not require post high school qualifications. I aspire to broaden my job prospects in the professional world. I can only achieve this by advancing my education. Since competencies that are required to practice nursing have expanded, there is a need for new knowledge of leadership skills, health policy, and public health among other new skills that will increase my level of education which will greatly affect my role in the future of nursing. In making critical decisions associated with care for sick and life saving technology, high levels of skills are required. Since nurses are called upon to utilize complex management and IT systems in analysis in order to heighten quality and efficacy of care, there is a need to increase the level of education in order to perform such tasks. In the future, nurses will be required to lay emphasis on multi-disciplinary teams that give care, and this means that they will have to collaborate with variety of health professionals like physicians, social workers, and pharmacists among others. This is only attainable through the acquisition of higher education (Wuchty, Jones & Uzzi, 2007 ).