Nurses in Northeast Tennessee Working toward IOM Recommendations for Many Years

Excerpt: The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) seminal report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health in 2010, addressed recommendations that included increasing the number of baccalaureate and doctoral nursing graduates; allowing advanced practice nurses to practice to the upper limit of their education; allowing nurses to be interprofessional, collaborative leaders; implementing nurse residency programs; providing opportunities for life-long learning; and enabling nurses to assume leadership positions in which the outcome is advancing health and healthcare. In October 2011, prior to the annual Tennessee Nurses Association convention, a preconference was held to discuss this report, the implications of the recommendations for Tennessee, the preliminary findings of a statewide survey on the educational recommendations (results to be published shortly), and the activities in place and/or planned to occur across the state. The nurses of northeast Tennessee have been working on these recommendations prior to this report and continue to do so since the report. This article will review these efforts