Nurse Profession 2.0

Nurse Profession 2.0 is a term used to describe the emergence of a paradigm shift in the global nurse industry. This shift is toward using technology as a means to aggregate the many facets of nursing into a more unified body that can produce more nurses to meet the rising demand for nursing care. Nurse Profession 2.0 is the revolution in the nursing profession made possible by infusing internet-based technologies into nursing solutions. It is a true second generation of nurse professionalism aiming to facilitate collaboration, creativity, and information sharing among nurses. The term does not refer to any specific technical specifications, but to changes in how technology can enhance how nurses are viewed professionally while simultaneously leading to enhanced patient care.

Crisis Within Nursing Profession
The 2008 world population exceeds 6.6 billion inhabitants and it is rapidly expanding. The U.S. population now exceeds 300 million inhabitants. The total number of nurses is estimated to be 14.9 million or only 0.22% of the world’s population. Of the total number of nurses, some 2.9 million reside within the U.S. Thus, the U.S. has close to 20% of the nurse population but less than 5% of the world’s total population. The situation is even more critical because slightly less than 50% of the 2.9 million U.S. nurses actually work in daily practice. Given the population growth and the relatively small percentage of nurses within the general population, at no point in modern history has the need for nursing been greater.

The current nursing shortage is a worldwide phenomenon that is jeopardizing healthcare by creating stressful working conditions for nurses. According to a study conducted by Penn State University, 90 out of 105 nurses’ unions and organizations surveyed—representing 69 nations—reported that their countries are experiencing a nursing shortage.

In the U.S., the nursing industry is in a state of chaos. Contributing factors include:
* 70 million Baby Boomers requiring increasing amounts of healthcare services
* An inadequate number of nursing schools turning away 143,000 qualified nurse program candidates per year
* High drop out rates within nursing schools and the first year following graduation
* Costs of high turnover rates
* Dangerously high levels of preventable medical errors, and
* A rapid approach to 1 million nursing vacancies in the U.S. alone by 2012.

Population growth and aging of the population resulting in increased per capita demand for health care, and trends in healthcare financing are major factors driving the increased demand for Registered Nurses (RNs). At the same time, the number of nursing school graduates is declining. In 2000, the nation graduated 26% fewer registered nurses than in 1995. Schools are experiencing limited nursing program capacity. For instance, in 2007, 143,000 qualified applicants were not accepted to nursing school. Of those applicants completing nursing programs, 53% will quit nursing in their first year of practice never to return. With the limited number of students admitted to nursing programs and the high first year attrition among new nurses, the making of a crisis becomes self-evident.

The result of chaos within the nursing community is high turnover rates, dangerously high rates of preventable medical errors, and a shortage of nurses approaching 1 million by the year 2012. Beyond first-year attrition, approximately 20% of the US nursing work force is in constant turnover and transition. In a population of 1.4 million working nurses, this creates close to 280,000 annual vacancies left by nurses moving from job to job. Added to this concern are the financial ramifications associated with the direct and hidden costs of RN vacancies and turnover, estimated by the American Organization of Nurse Executives to be $42,000 per medical surgical RN and $64,000 per specialty nurse. Further still, the incidence of medical error is rising at such a pace that Congress is seeking to bring this terrible condition under control by federal mandates. Based on the report entitled, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine estimates nearly 100,000 Americans die each year, not from the medical conditions they checked in with, but from preventable medical errors. Recent studies have linked inadequate nurse staffing with patient injury and other adverse outcomes. Further, when high attrition rates are coupled with the fact that 38% of the nurse workforce are Baby Boomers well on their way to retirement, the crisis in nursing can be predicted to explode exponentially. One final complication is that nurse management is poorly trained on how to manage a team. The constant turmoil in the workforce demands innovative solutions to this crisis.

Need for New Paradigm
Nurse Profession 2.0 is a concept growing in popularity and meaning. The concept is relatively new and needs to be defined and explained. The nursing profession is in deep trouble around the world. Change must come or healthcare delivery will be compromised. The concepts espoused by Nurse Profession 2.0 are revolutionary because these concepts seek to move nursing from its current state (pre-technology, mostly paper-based) to current standards. The term Nurse Profession 2.0 is a spin off of the term Web 2.0 which became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Like O’Reilly and Battelle's term, the use of the term Nurse Profession 2.0 is a revolutionary idea to bring nursing to the forefront of healthcare. The powerful features of Web 2.0 applications give nurses everywhere a chance to share information through a collaborative environment. By integrating blogs, wikis, and social media platforms into daily nursing practice, nurses will foster innovation among nurses to improve healthcare delivery and to reduce the exodus of nurses from the profession. Another positive gain from Nurse Profession 2.0 concepts is to reduce the feeling of isolation among individual nurses. Through the power of communication tools, nurses become interlinked in ways never before imaginable among nurses. The capabilities inherent in Web 2.0 allows users to generate and distribute content for reuses among the community. This can result in a rise in the economic value of the web to businesses, as users can perform more activities online.

Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams argue in their book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) that the economy of "the new web" depends on mass collaboration. Healthcare organizations can make use of Nurse Profession 2.0 principles and models in order to prosper with the help of Web 2.0-like applications: "Companies can design and assemble products with their customers, and in some cases customers can do the majority of the value creation". "In each instance the traditionally passive buyers of editorial and advertising take active, participatory roles in value creation." Tapscott and Williams suggest business strategies as "models where masses of consumers, employees, suppliers, business partners, and even competitors co-create value in the absence of direct managerial control".

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