According to the article The Future of Nursing Leading Change, Advancing Healthcare. There are four barriers to the nursing profession which prevent nurses from keeping up with the everchanging field of healthcare. To ensure that nurses are active participants in the future, there are four barriers that should be considered according to the article. The four barriers are 1. Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training. 2. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through a improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression. 3. Nurses should be full partners with physicians and other healthcare professionals, in redesigning healthcare in the United States. 4. Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure. The focus of this discussion will be the barriers and how they relate to my nursing career currently.
I am a member of a five-person team called the ECMO team. Our team, has utilized all four of the recommendations to take a more active role in patient care. Traditionally a perfusionist sits at the bedside of these patients however, for the last few months my team and I have been doing it solo with just a few checks and calls to the perfusionist. We work as a partner with the intensivists, managing the patient and machine together. As a nurse on the ECMO team I have been involved in its conception, me and my team have set on board meetings with the leaders of our hospital explaining why we need more equipment or why we need a change in policy and procedure. We have been involved in the policy making of the program and have regular meetings where we discuss any changes needed. These meetings are led by the nurses, and any changes that are made are typically driven by us. At the start of the program we had a weeklong classroom education and wet lab so we could practice using the machine needed. Since that initial education, every quarter we get another round of education. We also catalog all the information of the cases we do. We record a set of data for each case and keep it so we can improve upon our method and during these meetings we discuss cases.
In conclusion, I feel as though the article is correct in its statements the nursing profession needs to be able to find a way not around these barriers but through them to create a better profession for us all. We must find lasting solutions to the problems described in the article. I myself feel lucky to work in a place where I can participate in such a program.
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