Nursing education: key issues for the 21st century

In this paper, I reflect on what can be learned by engaging in future thinking within our discipline, and what implications the results of that thinking may have for the development of nursing education. Recognizing the marvelous diversity of perspective within our discipline with regard to what will and ought to be our future mandate, it seems reasonable to search for some grounding in what might ensure that we enter that future wisely. We all know that change is a fundamental characteristic of all future projections, and yet that insight seems a weak justification for failure to plan. Nurse educators hold a particular obligation to ensure that they are preparing the professionals who will take that future forward. Although we have always recognized that they must nurse for today with an eye on tomorrow, it is inordinately difficult to come to some agreement on how we can best bridge that gap within our educational programs and strategies. Toward this end, I draw on lessons that can be drawn from our professional history as a rich and vibrant context to propose some key issues for that future theorizing.