Summary of the February 2010 Forum on the Future of Nursing

As the U.S. health care system continues to evolve, the role of nurses also needs to evolve. Nurses must strike a delicate balance among advancing science, translating and applying research, and caring for individuals and families across all settings. Preparing nurses to achieve this balance is a significant challenge. The education system should ensure that nurses have the intellectual capacity, human responsiveness, flexibility, and leadership skills to provide care and promote health whenever and wherever needed. Education leaders and faculty need to prepare nurses with the competencies they need now and in the future. They need to prepare nurses to work and assume leadership roles not just in hospitals, but in communities, clinics, homes, and everywhere else nurses are needed. On February 22, 2010 the Initiative on the Future of Nursing held the last public forum in a series of three at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. This forum, which covered the education of nurses, consisted of three armchair discussions. Each discussion was led by a moderator from the committee and focused on three broad, overlapping subjects: what to teach, how to teach, and where to teach. The verbal exchange among the discussants and moderators, prompted by additional questions from committee members at the forum, produced a wide-ranging and informative examination of questions that are critical to the future of nursing education. Additionally, testimony presented by 12 individuals and comments made by members of the audience during an open microphone session provided the committee with valuable input from a range of perspectives.