January 15, 2016 – State of Nursing

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Anchor lead:  How are nurses faring these days? Elizabeth Tracey reports

The Institute of Medicine has just issued a report on the state of nursing here in the United States. Patricia Davidson, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, says it’s not a moment too soon.

Davidson: There are over 3 million nurses in the United States and they’re the greatest proportion of the healthcare workforce. As health care delivery is changing and the health care system is changing, I think it’s really timely and appropriate that we look at what is nursing, who are nurses, and how we configure the health care workforce for the future  :19

Davidson has specific hopes about how the report might be implemented.

Davidson: What we really need to strive for is role clarity, minimize role ambiguity, move from this environment of scarcity where everyone is holding onto their professional turf to think that there’s more than enough work for everybody, and how do we work together better as a team?  :19

Davidson also identifies the need for advanced practice nurses and educators as key.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.