Initiative on the Future of Nursing

Time to Remodel Nursing

A new report on 21st century nursing gives us plenty to digest and a big task to transform nursing, the largest segment of the health care workforce.

It offers recommendations that serve as a blueprint for the nursing profession to grow to a pivotal role in delivering quality health care. It means improving nursing education and providing new opportunities for nurses to assume leadership roles.

There is no time to sit still and just think about it. The recommendations come with a call to action. Some of them:

• Expand the nursing faculty, increase the capacity of nursing schools and redesign nursing education to make sure there will be an adequate number of well-prepared nurses for the new model of medicine now emerging.
• Attract and retain well-qualified nurses who can handle multiple care settings, including acute, ambulatory, primary care, long term care, community and public care.
• Find innovative solutions relating to delivery of care and develop new kinds of nurse education.

This report provides a thoughtful in-depth analysis of best practices, challenges and opportunities. We now have the directions. The question is how quickly can we get there?


-Afaf I. Meleis, Dean University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

Read more about the Initiative on the Future of Nursing including past blogs:



Afaf I. Meleis, PhD, DrPS(hon), FAAN
Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing
Professor of Nursing and Sociology
University of Pennsylvania
School of Nursing
Claire M. Fagin Hall
http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/