Is the Future of Nursing Education in Critical Condition?
by Courtney L. Vien and James M. Fraleigh
The nursing profession is reinventing itself. Nurses now perform many functions once limited to physicians, while treating ever-increasing numbers of sicker or older patients with chronic conditions or who require home care. Technology is becoming integral to nursing functions such as charting, testing, and drug administration. Health-care facilities also need degree-holding nurses to fill advanced practice and leadership positions.
To consider the implications of these changes, share solutions, and explore ways for employers and academics to ensure that nurses graduate with the right skills, Apollo Research Institute convened a panel of nursing experts for Critical Conditions: Preparing the 21st-Century Nursing Workforce, a discussion hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education in June 2011. The Institute will release a full report at apolloresearchinstitute.com this fall; highlights follow.
The Dire Need for More Nurses
The nursing shortage was the panel’s most pressing issue. One major cause is the nursing faculty shortage. Nursing schools turn away thousands of potential students each semester, and new graduates can earn more by immediately entering practice than by becoming educators. Some schools supplement faculty with part-time instructors from health-care or executive settings, which allows professionals to bring valuable real-life experience to the classroom and gives their employers fresh information on nursing education and RNs’ needs as employees.
To end the shortage, panelists suggested tapping new student populations underrepresented among nurses, such as men and minorities. Providing potential nurses with positive images of the profession could help attract these groups; community outreach programs, in which nursing students interact with underprivileged teenagers and children, can provide this sort of personal connection.
Nontraditional students—financially independent adults who work long, sometimes unpredictable hours and often juggle family responsibilities with studies—were also seen as important to closing the nursing shortage and skills gap. Many nursing students fit this description, the panelists noted, adding that such students prefer classes scheduled outside typical working hours or conducted partly or wholly online.
Another impediment to wider enrollment is a lack of understanding of the potential financial return of postsecondary degrees. A recent Apollo Research Institute (2011b) study demonstrated that nontraditional nursing students receive twice the lifetime return on educational investment of traditional students who enter college right after high school. To help nontraditional students overcome the stressful demands of the profession and justify the effort of returning to school, the panel suggested that working, degree-seeking nurses should be encouraged with scholarships, flexible scheduling, and incentives like clinical ladder programs that encourage and reward lifelong learning.
Ensuring Technology Supports Education and Care
Panelists agreed that properly deployed technology holds great promise for health-care and nursing education. Health-care organizations must develop comprehensive technology strategies to avoid purchasing incompatible systems that harm efficiency and invite hazardous workarounds. Likewise, educational institutions should first craft curricula and map desired student outcomes, and then select appropriate equipment.
Anxiety over and resistance to technology, particularly among older faculty and employees, is also a concern. Faculty will need to overcome this resistance to instruct students properly in emerging nursing technologies. Many nursing curricula, for example, do not cover electronic health records; as an ongoing Apollo Research Institute (2011a) study found, new graduates possess only a small subset of the skills needed for their proficient use.
Source: Apollo Research Institute. (2011a). Novice nurse electronic health record knowledge and skill gaps in acute care settings: Preliminary findings. Retrieved from http://apolloresearchinstitute.com/research-studies/workforce-preparedness/novice-nurse-electronic-health-record-knowledge-and-skill
Panelists nonetheless credited technology with contributing to safer and more efficient health care and more immersive nursing education. Sophisticated simulators, such as lifelike, high-fidelity manikins and virtual patients, are expanding students’ clinical repertoire and allowing skills to be tested in safe environments.
Nurses as Change Agents
Nurses are well equipped to address the challenges facing their profession. As executives, they implement programs that improve retention and job satisfaction; as academics, they make education more accessible; as technologists, they ensure that new tools help, not hinder. Event moderator Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, Vice President and Managing Director of Apollo Research Institute, commented, “When nurses come together with leaders from education, business, and technology, they devise innovative strategies for the future of nursing. Their expert voices add significance and urgency to the research on the 21st-century nursing workforce.”
References
Apollo Research Institute. (2011a). Novice nurse electronic health record knowledge and skill gaps in acute care settings: Preliminary findings. Retrieved from http://apolloresearchinstitute.com/research-studies/workforce-preparedness/novice-nurse-electronic-health-record-knowledge-and-skill
Apollo Research Institute. (2011b). Return on educational investment: Nursing. Retrieved from http://apolloresearchinstitute.com/sites/default/files/roei-nursing-exec-summary.pdf
Learn more at apolloresearchinstitute.com.
Courtney L. Vien and James M. Fraleigh write on a wide range of topics for Apollo Research Institute.
