asing
attrition rates among enrolled students (Huey and Hartley, 1988,
pp. 181-188). Neither individual nurses nor speciality or
regional nursing organizations can effectively address this
problem. A comprehensive, national organization--the American
Nurses' Association--is the only nursing organization with the
expertise and influence demanded by this task. Thus, all
registered nurses should support improved nursing education
through membership in the American Nurses' Association (Hartwick,
In the 1990s, professional nursing contends with long-
standing challenges to the profession's prerogatives from
physicians, and with relatively recent challenges involving
hospital administrators, and para-professional personnel. The
issue of professional autonomy is as important as is the nursing
personnel shortage. The issue of who should control nursing is
rooted in an age old conflict between nurses and physicians, and
it is rooted in the contemporary restructuring of the health care
delivery environment (McNerney, 1988, pp. 126-129). Physicians
have traditionally assumed a superiority of status with respect
to all other care givers, in the delivery of health care services
to patient. Nursing, however, considers the patient and patient
care from a different, but equally valid, perspective from the
approach physicians, and nurses think their profession requires a
significant degree of autonomy from the physician in the delivery
P8 à4 Šof patient care (Nelson, 1988, pp. 136-141). The American
Nurses' Association is well equipped and well placed to deal
effectively with the issue of professional autonomy (Mason, 1990,
pp. 11-17). Thus, with respect to the issue of professional
autonomy, registered nurses should support the American Nurses' ...