Building Academic Geriatric
Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) Initiative
10th Anniversary
Institute of Medicine Raises Awareness of Looming Crisis
While progress has been made in the past 14 years, the work is far from complete as documented in two recent reports by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a congressionally chartered expert advisory body.
Retooling for an Aging America
In 2008, the IOM highlighted the deficiencies in the current health care work force in the wake of the age wave. By the year 2030, 20 percent of the United States population will be over age 65, up from 12.9 percent in 2009. In its report “Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce,” supported by a consortium of funders including the Hartford Foundation, the IOM’s expert panel noted that, “Unless action is taken immediately, the health care workforce will lack the capacity (in both size and ability) to meet the needs of older patients in the future.”
To address the crisis, the IOM committee challenged the health care community to enhance the competence of all individuals in the delivery of geriatric care, increase the recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and caregivers, and redesign models of care and broaden provider and patient roles to achieve better health outcomes more efficiently.
“Geriatric specialists are needed in all professions not only for their clinical expertise, but also because they will be responsible to train the entire health care work force,” according to the IOM report.
The Future of Nursing
In 2010, the IOM published “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” According to the report, with more than three million members, the nursing profession has nearly doubled since 1980 and represents the largest segment of the health care workforce. The report responded to the question: “What roles can nursing assume to address the increasing demand for safe, high quality, and effective health care services?”
“These collegial efforts that the Hartford Foundation has created in tandem with universities, professional societies and funders will serve as a platform from which to launch our plan to transform the caring experience of consumers, improve interdisciplinary teams’ ability to provide excellent, patient-centered, efficient and equitable health care services, and facilitate the achievement of true health care accountability beyond the financing of our delivery system.”
Dr. Linda Burns Bolton
The report identifies aging and a more diverse population with chronic conditions as one of five national health challenges for the 21st century. The report noted the need for long-term and palliative care as well as care coordination for chronically ill and older persons. Among the recommendations in the report, the committee called on the profession to double the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020, ensure that nurses engage in lifelong learning, and prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health.
“I believe the Initiative on the Future of Nursing will lean heavily on BAGNC programs to implement the Future of Nursing plan,” says Linda Burns Bolton, DrPH, RN, Vice President, Nursing and CNO, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Vice Chair, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine.
Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity ›