Anticipating and reframing nursing practice, education and research

Abstract

Background: The past decade ushered in some dramatic changes in healthcare, which have major implications for practice. In Australia, a more multidimensional, primary health care system has been planned to prevent and manage new and existing diseases and chronic conditions through innovative approaches across the care continuum. Aim: To respond to the changes, educational curricula will have to evolve and adapt in tandem with developments in the healthcare system and prepare nurses and midwives for new roles, new forms of information transfer, and changing workplace expectations. The complexity of the workplace, the evolution of technologies, and knowledgeable clientele provide the impetus to re-align our curricula to roles wherein our graduates are prepared to master technological and system level capabilities, refocus care from health defects to enhancing health assets, and recommit to evidence-based practice. Our research agendas and methods have already begun shifting from traditional, minimum evidence-based measures to accommodate the complexities of client-centred care. Conclusion: An optimistic future will see our education and research agendas continue to inform accurate, appropriate, acceptable, effective, efficient, high quality, safe care for individuals, families, communities and societies. The most inspiring and rewarding research and teaching will focus on the processes of quality care, and the many ways health outcomes are shaped by the contextual factors that modify health throughout the health illness trajectory and across the lifespan from pregnancy and birth to the end of life.