Nursing: Not the Problem, but Leading Solutions

Abstract

One of the major themes uncovered by Graham and Sibbald in their analysis of the 50-year-old issues of Hospital Administration in Canada (HAC) is the evolution of nursing. However, the HAC approach 50 years ago was that nursing was a problem to be solved, not a resource for health, the health system and the public, and that image would stay with nursing in Canada for many years to come. The recent commissioning by the Canadian Nurses Association of a National Expert Commission to examine sustainability of health and the healthcare system, and the resultant report, The Health of Our Nation, the Future of Our Health System: A Nursing Call to Action, released in June 2012, reflect a significantly different expectation about nurses and the nursing profession - they are not problems to be addressed, but are leading the solutions to better health, better care and better value. And patients are not passive recipients of care decided on by professionals alone, but central team members - "CEOs of their own healthcare" - in an inter-professional patient-/family-focused team that collectively supports people in their health journey. A number of examples of potential articles about and from nursing, based on the findings of the National Expert Commission, are included to illustrate how nursing should be reflected in an issue of HAC in 2012.