Educational remapping for a responsible future.

Abstract

S NURSING like the Vermont farmer who, when queried by a passing motorist as to how to get to his destination, scratched his head, pondered lengthily, and grudgingly advised, I wouldn't start from here? This a t t i tude-our at t i tude-is one we can't afford. It is guaranteed not to get us to Montpelier or the moon or wherever we choose to go. In our thirty-year stream of books, pamphlets, editorials, position papers, resolutions, policy statements, and national plans on educational goals for the profession the words are clear and compelling. Strangely, the only numbers in those professional documents are the years--the years 1980 and 1985 in which the goal of the baccalaureate degree for professional practice was to have been achieved by the magic ofretitling and licensing. These documents do not speak of numbers of types of nursing personnel needed to meet health care needs or numbers of nursing schools and their annual productivity. This denial suggests that we may not intend to start from here. But, of course, we must. Let's talk numbers. We are prepared to open the discussion in simple fashion, by comparing broadly developed national projections on nursepower supply (S) with nursepower need (N), by educational level, for the year 2000. Our current rate of productivity from the variety of nursing education programs is the route to destination S, projected supply. How much must our course be altered if we are to proceed instead to destination N, projected need? A course correction in educational mapping must become the centerpiece for a national plan to reach our chosen destiny. Figure 1 shows conceptually the need for educational remapping, reflecting that the course of productivity of technical nursing personnel must be