In 2010, AARP, the AARP Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) launched the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, a massive, multi-faceted effort to transform the nursing profession in order to improve health and health care. The Campaign is grounded in an evidence-based report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that states that transforming nursing education, practice and leadership will help expand access to care, improve quality and reduce costs. A larger, stronger and more highly educated nursing workforce, the report finds, will help create a healthier population.
The Campaign for Action has mounted a vast field effort at the national and state levels to achieve that vision. Action Coalitions—groups of nurses, other health leaders, consumers, educators, business leaders and others—are the driving force behind the field effort at the state level. They are now in place in 50 states and the District of Columbia and are working to implement the report’s recommendations in health care facilities, with policy-makers, at colleges and universities, and in many other settings.
Action Coalition leaders are creating organizational structures, raising awareness about the IOM report and the need to transform nursing, identifying state-specific priorities, forging partnerships with allies from diverse sectors, and raising funds to sustain their work. Although driven by the same overarching mission, each Action Coalition has set its own unique, state-specific course to reach its goals. And in just two short years, many have already scored significant victories.
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