The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 Report
In 2010, the Institute of Medicine, in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, released the famous “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” report. This report helped shed light on the crucial role of nurses as members of healthcare in transforming healthcare. Recently, the Institute of Medicine released “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.” This report highlights the role of nurses in the next decade, especially as it regards achieving health equity. A lot of social determinants of health are to blame for the various health disparities reported in the country. Nurses are responsible for reducing those health disparities and promoting health in the country (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine, 2022).
The American Nurses Association (ANA) has been widely involved in advocacy efforts to address health disparities and improve public health and safety. Among the areas that ANA is trying to address is gun violence in the country. Gun violence is a significant public health and safety issue. Each day, 321 Americans are shot across the United States. Among those, 111 are killed (Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2022). Cases of the mass shooting have significantly increased over the years. Thus, ANA is among the organizations raising concern over the country’s increased gun violence cases. ANA is calling for commonsense reforms on guns. These reforms will help keep guns out of the wrong hands. People with a history of violence, convicted felons, and those with mental illness should not have access to guns. Thus, strengthening background checks will help a lot in ensuring only law-abiding citizens have access to guns. Further, ANA calls for further investment in mental health. A lot of cases, including mass shootings, homicides, and suicides by guns, are attributed to mental illness. Thus, it is vital for the government to invest more in mental health care (American Nurses Association, 2022).
Every American adult and child will benefit a lot from the legislation of stricter gun control laws. Both adults and children have suffered the impact of gun violence. Cases of school shootings, malls, and churches affect everyone. Thus, Americans will benefit first. There are a lot of nonprofit organizations working to address the problem of gun violence in our society. These organizations will make good allies. Examples of such organizations include Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Gun Free Kids, Mayors against Illegal Guns, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and Everytown for Gun Safety, among others (Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2022).
Bringing more nurses together can help in amplifying the nurses’ call for policy change. An advanced practice nurse needs to involve coworkers in political advocacy. This can be done by highlighting the impact of the advocacy issue on the local community. More healthcare workers will be engaged if they feel the issues directly impact their communities. Further, it is important to provide sensible solutions. Having a potentially effective solution can help bring everyone on board.
References
American Nurses Association. (2022). ANA President Responds to Executive Actions to Regulate Gun Sales.https://www.nursingworld.org/news/news-releases/2016/ana-president-responds-to-executive-actions-to-regulate-gun-sales/ (Links to an external site.)
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. (2022). Gun violence by numbers. https://www.bradyunited.org/key-statistics (Links to an external site.)
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine. (2022). The Future of Nursing 2020-2030. https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/the-future-of-nursing-2020-2030
