PMID: 11727636

Issn Print: 0002-0443

Publication Date: 2001/11/01


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A Strategic Vision for Nursing Practice

Joyce A. Hahn

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Author Information: Inova Health System, Falls Church, Va.

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Excerpt

The critical nursing shortage in the American healthcare system is reaching crisis proportions. Hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare providers are experiencing nursing staff shortages. An aging workforce and a decreased enrollment of students entering college nursing programs reinforce the necessity to address this issue with strategic and collaborative insight. The current and projected nursing shortage presents an opportunity to collaboratively design a visionary strategic plan to meet the challenges of the healthcare future. Christman writes, “Outside forces may have contributed to the present state of affairs, because of the lassitude of nurses.”1(p.211) Together as a profession we must think strategically to position nursing as a united and collaborative force in the healthcare environment.
A flexible and proactive strategic vision for nursing will allow the profession to reassess and modify direction while remaining cohesive and unified as a profession. A leadership triad composed of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the National League of Nursing (NLN) and the Organization of Nurse Executives (ONE) could initiate dialogue and take the lead in the strategic planning process. This leadership triad would represent the educators working in collaborative partnership with the nursing executive stakeholders in the healthcare marketplace. This leadership team can create the environment to learn collectively while sharing knowledge and expertise. The opportunity exists to examine the consequences of the future based on the reality of the present.
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