2010--a banner year for nursing education

Among the provisions with the biggest effects on nursing education are (1) expansion of health care coverage for more than 20 million currently uncovered Americans through various health insurance reforms--which will tremendously increase demand for primary care providers, including nurse practitioners; (2) increased funding for preventive services, including a grant program to support the delivery of evidence-based and community-based prevention and wellness services aimed at strengthening prevention activities, reducing chronic disease rates, and addressing health disparities, especially in rural and frontier areas; (3) the development of training programs that focus on primary care models such as medical homes, team management of chronic disease, and those that integrate physical and mental health services; (4) the establishment of Teaching Health Centers, defined as community-based, ambulatory patient care centers, including federally qualified health centers and other federally funded health centers that are eligible for Medicare payments for the expenses associated with operating primary care residency programs, potentially creating opportunities for interprofessional, prelicensure community-based experiences; (5) a variety of programs aimed at increasing health care workforce supply, including those that may include nursing, such as primary care training and capacity building, training in cultural competence, and promoting a more diverse workforce; and (6) development of interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training programs and programs to address the projected shortage of nurses by increasing the capacity for education, supporting training programs, providing loan repayment and retention grants, and creating a career ladder to nursing (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010; National League for Nursing, 2010). Traditional nursing competencies such as care management, patient education, public health intervention and transitional care will dominate in a reformed health care system, as it inevitably moves toward emphasis on prevention and management over acute care.