reimbursement. Physicians, as can be imagined, resist such trends. The worst outcome would be erosion of the public trust in both professions. Nursing shortages are widespread, and the movement of licensed practical nurses, licensed vocational nurses, men, and minorities into the ranks of registered nurses is occurring very slowly. The reasons for this are discussed. The nursing profession remains stratified by class and income; the modern manifestation of these attributes are differences in educational levels. Basic issues concerning women's identities as people who care, and people who are professionals, further complicate the future of nursing. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
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Full Text COPYRIGHT American Medical Association 1990
Nursing: Breaking the Bonds? IN SPITE OF nursing's historic ability to beat the odds, and its recent record of accomplishment and growing power, the profession's future is uncertain. It is, like most of health care, facing restricted funding, work force shortages, rationing, and political upheavals.
In addition, nursing faces specific dilemmas that have plagued it for more than 100 years: what nursing is, who should practice it, with what preparation, and in what setting. The profession has not yet answered these questions to its own satisfaction, much less to the satisfaction of anyone outside the field.
But because nursingùwhatever it isùis so essential to health care, its problems can easily become the problems of health care as a whole. That has been demonstrated by the domino effect of the current nursing shortage on other providers. It therefore seems likely that as nursing seeks to take a unified stand about its own future, a great many other interests will want to be involved.
The key question is what the pratice of nursing will consist of in the 21st century. Nurses work in every ...