The Personal and Professional Impact of the Future of Nursing Report

Perioperative nurses can apply the four key messages outlined in the Institute of Medicine report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health from personal and professional perspectives. Advocating to remove barriers to practice and educating the public about the perioperative nurse's role can help nurses practice to the full extent of their education and training. Nurses can achieve higher levels of education and training by taking advantage of new educational opportunities that offer a more seamless progression to an advanced degree. To act as full partners with other health professionals, nurses can participate in interdisciplinary teams and implement evidence-based practice, and they can contribute to effective workforce planning and policy making by helping to collect and analyze data that will improve practice environments. The key messages of the report address all nurses, whether they are direct care providers, advanced practice RNs, educators, or administrators.