Dr. Cheung's keynote address, Nursing Education and Patient Mortality," did not present any surprising information. As one might expect, there is a correlation between the level of education of the nursing staff and the patient mortality rate in hospitals. However, Dr. Cheung built on this at-once obvious premise to present valuable information about the role that registered nurses will play in coming years, and the crisis that the American healthcare system is about to face as its RN population ages and fewer individuals are attracted to the profession (Cheung, 2004).
The presentation was done in a professional manner with handouts provided and an interesting presentation style. Dr. Cheung effectively communicated her ideas, and was able to keep the audience interested even as she described some of the more arcane details of the research that supported her conclusion that surgical patient mortality is directly correlated to the level of education of the nursing staff.
Dr. Cheung also refrained from merely presenting the problem·too few nurses coming into the profession, not enough education·and offered suggestions on how the situation can be improved. Educating the public at large and the patient population in particular can help bring pressure to bear on the healthcare system to change its tactics so that more individuals are attracted to the nursing profession. In addition, this pressure can be used to help ensure that these nurses not only attain appropriate degrees at the beginning of their careers, but maintain their education above that which is required for their licenses throughout their careers.
There is an immediate and direct relevance to health care in the remarks of Dr. Cheung. Without an educated nursing staff, hospitals are likely to have higher patient mortality rates. Dr. Cheung did not explore all of the reasons for this correlation, but there are several possible causes·nurses may be attracted
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