In 2010, the United States healthcare system began its dramatic transformation as the president signed comprehensive healthcare legislation into law. The legislation, cumulatively referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), offered 32 million, previously uninsured Americans, access to affordable health insurance (IOM, 2011). As Americans rejoiced and signed up for insurance, concern mounted as to whether the current healthcare system could tolerate the increased patient load. The nursing profession, in particular, was expected to face several obstacles in response to a transformed healthcare system (Trouble, 2014). According to an article in Health Affairs, addressing these obstacles requires effective production and use of the nursing workforce (Rother & Lavizzo-Mourey, 2009). In an effort to guide the impending increase of Americans expected to seek healthcare, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) along with the Committee on the Robert Wood Foundation (RWJF) formed an initiative on the future of nursing. The 2-year initiative served as an action-based model for the restructuring of the nursing profession (IOM, 2011). The committee identified four key messages that guided the IOM discussion including the future of nursing education, nursing practice and the nurse’s role as a leader. The key messages and recommendations of the initiative on nursing provided nurses with the unique opportunity to further define its role in the healthcare field.…