Future Nursing Workforce: Securing Intellectual Capital
With a worldwide nursing shortage and increasing numbers of nurses reaching retirement age, nothing could be more important for the professional future of nursing than to plan for and secure our intellectual capital. While there are more applicants to schools of nursing nationwide than what can be accommodated by a diminishing number of qualified faculty, a more significant aspect is the dearth of educating and securing the future leadership of healthcare systems as well as nursing education. Nursing is at a crucial crossroads, which could lead to other professions' taking over leadership in healthcare settings and academia. If this occurs, the knowledge base of nursing, that which we treasure most for the safety and welfare of patients in all settings, could be set aside and severely compromised. If healthcare corporations and educational settings reach outside of the profession of nursing for future leadership and managerial expertise, our intellectual capital will be awash with a flood of imposters. Betty Falter recognized and shared the urgency of securing our intellectual capital with the editorial board, and agreed to lead this most significant issue of Nursing Administration Quarterly (NAQ).
Elizabeth (Betty) Falter, MS, RN, CNAA, BC, is an experienced, action-oriented project/change manager and educator who demonstrates a unique balance of clinical and operational skills. She makes change happen through a focus on merging strategy maps, balanced scorecards, leadership, education, and communication. Betty's nursing career started at the Walter Reed Army Institute for Nursing, earning a BSN from the University of Maryland. She has an MS in Community Health from Long Island University. As President of Falter & Associates, she brings an unusual combination of operational knowledge and presentation skills to audiences throughout the nation. She currently serves as Executive Director for the Arizona Healthcare Leadership Academy and is faculty for the Cross Country Boot Camp for Nurses and Annual Healthcare Leadership Forum. These professional activities have postured Betty to be in a prime position to lead this most timely issue of NAQ.
Creative approaches to leadership and communication are part of the essential components needed to secure the "intellectual capital" for nursing. However, an often-overlooked resource is the vast contributions, mentoring capability, wisdom, and experience of the senior, retired, and semiretired international nurse leaders. Some nurse leaders plan for perpetuation of leadership in professional organizations, healthcare systems, academia, consultant businesses, and even journalistic endeavors. As this issue of NAQ begins its 31st year with a new look, I am reminded that it also is my 32nd year as editor and creator. My responsibility is to mentor and prepare successors in editing and writing, and therefore have designated issue editors since 1987, providing opportunity for many colleagues to develop their journalistic capabilities. We have organizations that focus on developing future nursing leaders in all areas of practice, education, and research. The International Academy of Nursing Editors, which meets annually, is very supportive of those who wish to pursue nursing journalism. Skill sets in curiosity, creativity, communicating, and learning have driven us to reach beyond previous actions, inactions, and status quo thinking.
Curiosity and creativity have constantly provided the impetus to know about the multiple dimensions of the people, places, and events that shape our lives. Questioning and inquisitiveness can lead to trouble as the "bicultured troublemaker" new nurse or to problem resolution in the workforce of tomorrow. We are so fortunate to be at a professional precipice of change, attracting second- and third-career nurses, as they bring so many new dimensions to nursing that enrich and recapture our past heritage. Just think of the ex--music teacher, entering nursing, bringing the talent and creative arts to the "caring and nurturing" of nursing. Or the retired policeman or fireman, enriching our lives with more men in nursing and talents of response to trauma and emergency situations.
We are at an extraordinary time of sharing knowledge from our past and enlightening our profession with new and innovative profession-changing events, such as a universal "nursing shortage," losing great nursing leaders, and the opportunity to tap into the intellectual capital of those who are retiring, but need to be contributing to this lifelong, life-giving profession of nursing. How can we comprehend something new without revisiting our past through the contributions of so many nurse leaders? As we explore our future survival in nursing, let us not second-guess what we already know. This is not the first time we have a severe nursing shortage. The shortage of the 1970s led us to Magnet Hospitals, and today "magnetism" has new meaning and symbolism for the future.
Embrace our mistakes, like eliminating or severely compromising graduate programs in healthcare systems and nursing administration. Without these leadership-developing programs we will lose the right to provide strong successors in both academia and healthcare systems. There is no end in sight as information technologies surpass our wildest dreams for enhancing our caring for the future nursing workforce and the patients we serve. Succession planning is key to our survival, and those who know it best, the senior experts in all areas of nursing, are waiting to be recalled into active participation to enrich the future nursing workforce. We will continue to have fragmented and chaotic healthcare systems, with financial mergers, takeovers, and other-than-clinically focused leaders trying to overrun the caring of people in this nation. The floodgates are open and nursing's future is at stake, as is the future of healthcare. The best thing about being a nurse is everyone needs us, so let us not neglect our heritage. We are still viewed as the most trustworthy, the patient advocate, the protector of patient's rights, and above all, the voice for our own future.
-Barbara J. Brown, EdD, RN, CNAA, FAAN, FNAP
Editor-in-Chief, Nursing Administration Quarterly