Future of Nursing

June 6, 2011 / Peggy L Chinn / 20 Comments

A landmark report on the FUTURE OF NURSING was issued last fall by the Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation. There are four major recommendations:

Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training.
Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression.
Nurses should be full partners, with physicians and other health care professionals, in redesigning health care in the United States.
Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and information infrastructure.

Each of these recommendations are framed in language that is well suited to public policy-making, but if we read these recommendations from a “Nurse Manifest” lens, they take on even greater importance! Take, for example, the idea of “full extent of [our] education and training.” If nursing education reaches the ideals that we have set forth in the “Manifesto” where education is concerned, all of health care could be radically re-invented!

I believe that more nurses than we imagine have ideals about nursing that are very similar to the values that we described on the initial NurseManifest.com web site. Let’s brainstorm ways we can better connect with the “Future of Nursing” initiatives going on all around the U.S., and keep these values in the forefront!

As Nurse Week Comes to a Close: Nursing Theory

May 15, 2011June 7, 2011 / Carey S. Clark, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, RYT, FAAN / 3 Comments

This last week here in the USA we celebrated Nurses’ Week and then Nurses’ Day on May 12. May 12 is the birth date of two of the founders of contemporary nursing, Florence Nightingale and Martha Rogers. Nightingale ushered in an era of modern nursing beginning in the 1850’s, where women could work in a hospital setting after undergoing professional training. Just prior to Nightingale’s efforts, nursing was generally not thought of as a respected profession. Over 100 years later, Rogers brought to us a theory of Unitary Human Beings, which helps us to better understand our patients’ needs, and guides our own journey toward emancipation as a profession.

Florence Nightingale

Martha Rogers

These two women, each with their own controversial and spiritual views of nursing, have greatly impacted nurses and the profession. I strongly believe that each and every nurse can also create change in the workplace. We need to find ways to first care for ourselves, and then communicate better with each other, our patients, our administrators, our legislators, and the general public. We need to bridge the gap between Continue reading →

Nurse’s image: “The Heart Attack Grill”

May 6, 2011May 7, 2011 / Carey S. Clark, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, RYT, FAAN / Leave a comment

I would like to wish all nurses a wonderful and joyous celebration of Nurses’ Week. I believe we remain the world’s most caring and trusted profession, and I know for myself that the rewards of being a nurse and teaching nursing are beyond compare. We are blessed to be part of a diverse body of professionals that use interpersonal skills, caring modalities, and medical interventions in order to create healing spaces for those who are suffering or in need.

So, I was shocked and saddened the other day to learn that there exists in our society places such as the “Heart Attack Grill” in Chandler, AZ. The heart attack grill is a hospital themed restaurant, where waitresses are referred to as nurses, and specialties include the triple and quadruple bypass burgers. Patrons or “patients” can be weighed in and if the scale tips over 350 pounds, the patron eats for free. This restaurant came to my attention when I saw that their 29 year old spokesperson Blair River, who weighed in at 575 pounds, died of pneumonia following Continue reading →

Change agents – or complicit?

April 29, 2011 / Peggy L Chinn / 5 Comments

Over the past couple of weeks I have been giving a lot of thought to the issues of integrity that Carey wrote about last week. Personal integrity is a challenge that increasingly affects not only academics, but also practice and research. And, this is at the core of what we are seeking to address in the Nurse Manifest Project. So this deserves lots of attention, and I hope that folks will get involved in some of this discussion!

In this post I want to lay some groundwork for things I will write about over the next several days and weeks — ways that we can work toward change, and interrupt ways that we are (often unknowingly) complicit.

Years ago I read Nel Noddings wonderful book “Women and Evil,” which has provided a grounding for me Continue reading →

Academic Integrity: State of the Issue in Nursing

April 22, 2011April 22, 2011 / Carey S. Clark, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, RYT, FAAN / 10 Comments

I was recently in an “all school” meeting at my University, where we offer courses via a variety of modalities. Some of the what I might call “more traditional” faculty expressed concerns about online learning and maintaining academic integrity. Having been an online student for both my MSN and PhD degrees, and having taught in nursing education programs online for the last 6 years, I must admit that I was sort of internally laughing at some of the concerns presented, such as “what if the person is not really posting their discussions?. “how can me be sure there are the student’s papers”, and “how do we know it is the student taking the exam?”. I mean we have to assume a certain level of academic integrity and honesty from our students, right?