Outline: Importance of Lifelong Learning

• Initiative the Resulted from IOM and its Impact

The U.S healthcare system continues to experience massive changes, including the difference in the population needs.

This necessitates continued improvement in the training and the education of nurses so that they can be able to meet these demands.

• Interrelationships between Lifelong Learning, Clinical Reasoning, and Clinical Judgment

The IOM report (2010) notes that no single individual would know all there is to know about a particular field, including medicine.

This means that the practitioners in the field have to embark on a journey of continuous learning, which helps to enhance their clinical reasoning and judgment and consequently leads to positive health outcomes.

Importance of Lifelong Learning

Initiative the Resulted from IOM and its Impact

            The U.S healthcare system continues to experience massive changes including the change in the population needs. This necessitates continued improvement in the training and the education of nurses so that they can be able to meet these demands. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) gives various insights on lifelong learning. One of the initiatives that resulted from the IOM report is the Hospital Education and Training (HEET) initiative. It came as a result of the recognition of the challenges that are currently facing nursing education. The objective of the initiative is to address the nursing shortages that are rampant in healthcare facilities (IOM, 2010).

These shortages will be addressed through education and an upgrade to the current workers which fosters a culture of continuous learning in the healthcare field. This initiative will benefit both the healthcare facilities and field and the workers. It seeks the development of educational opportunities that can support the changing needs of the employers (healthcare facilities) and also the career aspirations of the practitioners which is imperative in contributing to job satisfaction and therefore lowering the turnover. The Washington State Board for Community administers this program (IOM, 2010).

IOM finds that this initiative will most likely diversify the workforce in terms of race and ethnicity. This is because the initiative offers more flexibility for practitioners that wish to continue their education through on site and part time classes. The other impact of the initiative will be increased job satisfaction. Nurse practitioners also crave for growth. Sometimes, the work may be so engaging such that there is no room for expanding knowledge and education. however, this initiative provides a window for the practitioners to be able to work while still continuing their education which will have a positive impact on their job satisfaction. It is also important to mention the impact that this initiative will have to overall improved health outcomes of the population. Nurses who have continued to learn will apply these same concepts and reasoning to extending healthcare services which will lead to positive outcomes for the population.

Interrelationships between Lifelong Learning, Clinical Reasoning and Clinical Judgment

            The IOM report (2010) notes that there is no single individual that would know all there is to know about a particular field including medicine. This means that the practitioners in the field have to embark on a journey of continuous learning which helps to enhance their clinical reasoning and judgment and consequently lead to positive health outcomes. Lifelong learning or continuing education ensures that there is continuing competence of the practitioners. it expands the horizons of the healthcare practitioner where they are able to reason, think and judge because of the exposure they have received. Through lifelong learning, the practitioner meets other practitioners and they even engage in inter-professional collaboration again expanding their abilities to think and reason.

It is this expansion which then contributes to better clinical reasoning and judgment as there are perspectives from diverse areas and practitioners. additionally, lifelong learning helps the practitioners to question the existence of some of the practices or to try and develop new practices as the world continually changes. They can expand on the research that exists and relate it with the current population. This then helps the practitioners to develop new practices which help in clinical decision making and eventually better the healthcare outcomes of the patients. Further, exercising sound clinical reasoning to get effective judgments requires and depends on the experience of the healthcare practitioner (McCartney, 2017). Experience only comes from lifelong learning which does not necessarily have to be in a classroom. The nurse can learn from practice and from other practitioners. This lifelong learning then helps sound decision making for the nurse come easily. They are also able to exercise a lot of critical thinking which is vital for positive healthcare outcomes.