The Preparation of Nurses to Enter Complex Practice
The unprecedented need for more nurses has led to an examination of the state of nursing education in the nation. This article will present several recent views that discuss both the need for a greater number of nurses and increasing the quality and relevance of nursing education. A number of factors are preventing nursing education from reaching its full potential. Nursing education has not changed significantly in the last half century. Clinical training availability is of paramount concern. RNs typically have little financial incentive to leave clinical nursing to become instructors. Half of all present faculty will retire within this decade. They are not being replaced at the same rate and yet there will be a need for even more instructors quite soon. It has been suggested that the many ways to enter nursing does not encourage enough graduates to continue on past the ADN or BSN therefore missing the opportunity to become instructors. Without faculty, potential appl