key: cord-0882287-i9b4vktf
authors: Kollman, Sara; Braegger, Denise; Head, Barbara
title: COVID-19’s Disruptive Innovation: Accelerating the Academic Preparation of Professional Nurses Ambulatory and Telehealth Roles
date: 2021-10-22
journal: Nurse Lead
DOI: 10.1016/j.mnl.2021.10.003
sha: c5f546e95c0aea59d08a1d701b0637e316bdf4b6
doc_id: 882287
cord_uid: i9b4vktf

nan

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged and disrupted all aspects of health care. We have survived early acute care surges in critically ill patients with unclear infectious disease risks, supply chain disruption and essential worker shortages and identified the unrecognized importance of public health infrastructure and impacts of social determinants of health. We are continuing to learn about the impact of virus variants, the resiliency impacts to our workforce, and the long-range financial sequelae. The exponential speed of this disruptive innovation has pushed health care organizations, private and public sector businesses, and academia to come together in ways only imagined prior to COVID-19. The stage is set for revolutionary and innovative changes for the nursing profession.

Population health and community-focused care, fully leveraging ambulatory and telehealth practices, are the emerging health care venues as well as a solution to the US health care equity and cost containment challenges. Corresponding and aligned academic reformation is pivotal to lead this change and fundamentally redesign the nursing profession's essential post-pandemic J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f role. A high-level overview of the report recommendations, exemplars of disruptive innovations in academic preparation for population-based, ambulatory care and telehealth professional nursing practice roles, and implications for nurse executives will be identified.

The 

The call to action for nurse executives is three-fold. First, we need to be bold and innovative in supporting not only traditional pre-licensure clinical experiences in ambulatory, community health and telehealth specialties, but also in partnering with our academic leaders in the design of new, creative educational approaches. This includes collaborative, interprofessional clinical experiences and robust expansion of informatics and other technology.

Next, we need to actively participate in developing and supporting programs that will lead to enhanced care in underserved communities and populations facing significant SDOH challenges. This begins by addressing the diversity, equity and inclusion challenges for both nursing students and faculty.

Finally, we need to redesign clinical and academic preparation that allows "care everywhere", reshapes our system from illness-based to health-focused, and demonstrates the nursing profession's role in being the cure for what ails our U.S. health care system. This is accomplished through the dissemination of best practices, networking across public and private sectors, and by supporting and participating in rigorous research endeavors.

The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report and the AACN's Essentials are the road maps to re-engineered academic preparation to align with ambulatory and telehealth nursing roles of the future. 1 

The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity

The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education

Ambulatory care education: Preparing nurses for the future of healthcare

University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing

Utah NEPQR: Nurse Education, Practice, Quality & Retention Program

Service learning in public health nursing education: How COVID-19 accelerated community-academic partnership

CHNS: Community Health Nurse Scholars