Shaping the nursing future

Generational differences

Older Workforce

Healthcare reform

technology

"What will the culture of nursing and nursing education look like in the future?"

Nursing will become more evolved through lawsuits and lawsuit abuse.

"What forces will shape nursing in the future? Certainly economics, but I am wondering what else will affect the way nursing evolves in the near future?"

Lawsuits already make up a lot of our everyday thinking. "I must do it this way and chart it just like this b/c you never know if a lawyer will be looking at it later...". Think of what the suits of the 80's and 90's did to the medical profession. Yes, a lot of it did some good in cleaning up some overlooked practices. At the same time, we were faced with doctors un-willing or un-able to perform many things they did in the past. Doctor-patient relationships changed. Doctors are scared.

It is becoming more and more common for a nurse to be a lead role in major lawsuits. How will s/he have to evolve to stay afloat?

I don't know for sure, but here's what I would LIKE to see:

Nursing faculty salaries are such that only the best and the brightest clinicians are recruited as nurse educators. Yes, there are some excellent nursing faculty out there, but there are many more who should be in your ranks but are not because it is not economically feasible.

Nurse grads come out of school with a wealth of real-world knowledge because they've had the chance to be fostered by excellent practicing instructors. Also, an internship is built into the curriculum (in addition to clinical rotation) so that new grad nurses are actually employable and ready to go to work.

Federal mandates on safe staffing ratios mean that every patient gets the care we want to give them.