Nursing: profession in peril

Abstract

The number of nursing faculty experienced and skilled in research and scholarship is declining because of retirement and insufficient numbers of new scholars entering academia. This trend, alone, puts the future development of the nursing profession at risk. In addition, the increasing expectations placed upon the existing professoriate in the teaching and essential institutional service arenas necessitated by this shortage limit both the time and energy of senior faculty who are most qualified to advance the profession. The historical development of nursing as a profession is grounded in its affiliation with institutions of higher education that provided the support and opportunities for nursing scholarship. The viability of any profession is dependent upon the ongoing generation and dissemination of knowledge. In the current and predicted environments, nursing academic institutions and individual faculty must acknowledge the fundamental role of research and scholarship in the advancement of the profession and seek methods by which they can provide support. Strategies for institutional and individual action are offered so that the knowledge base of the profession will continue to develop.