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| James E. Mattson |
Nothing stays the same, and that’s also true for nursing. I’d like your help in forecasting changes that lie just ahead.
A long time ago, back when I was preparing for a career in journalism—before the Internet and digital cameras—I took a photography course that was part photocomposition and part film processing and development, as in darkroom. (This was also before one-hour photos.) For many, film-based photography and darkrooms have gone the way of the dodo bird, replaced by digital photography and Photoshop. As I said, nothing stays the same.
Actually, I consider myself the richer for having experienced both film and digital technologies. With regard to the former, there was something magical. The first step was film development. Standing in a room devoid of light, you had to depend on sense of touch to remove film from its canister, wind it on a larger spool and chemically process it to produce negatives. Once you had negatives, you could take the next step and proceed to the printing room, eerily illuminated by a dim red light.
In the printing room, photo enlargers projected a negative’s reverse image onto light-sensitive paper. After brief exposure to the enlarger’s light, the paper was dipped in one chemical bath to activate image development, in another to stop image development, and in still another to fix or stabilize the image. For me, the best part was seeing an image form on paper that I had previously seen through the viewfinder of my camera.
Preview of the future
One of those images was that of the newly constructed School of Nursing building at the college I attended, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). Why did I shoot that shot? I don’t know. It was there, and I needed to complete a class assignment. As far as I know, no one else in the class took a picture of the new nursing building, so maybe what I saw in my viewfinder was actually a preview, an unsuspected clue that someday I would serve as editor of Reflections on Nursing Leadership.
Much has changed in the intervening years, for the journalism students who took that photography course and for the nursing students at UWEC’s School of Nursing who were the first to use that new building. For the latter group, some changes have been superficial—smocks replacing white caps and uniforms, for example—while others have been significant, the modern hospice movement, to name one. At the bedside, the evolution from clipboarded paper charts to electronic health records is a work in progress. With regard to the nursing shortage, it’s déjà vu all over again, but this time with longer-term implications. And evidence-based nursing? That’s also a work in progress.
Next month, I’ll be traveling to Indianapolis to participate in an all-day planning meeting for the publications department and to provide the RNL editor’s report for the board of directors meeting. As part of the publications planning meeting, I’ve been asked to identify the top 10 issues facing the nursing profession over the next three years.
Here’s where I need your help
In addition to my own research, I’d like to hear what you—RNL readers—think are the top 10 issues. At this point, there are no correct answers. Just as it took time for an image to form on photo paper floating in a chemical bath, so it will take time to see if what we currently think are the top 10 issues over the next three years really turn out to be the top 10. But waiting for reality to form is part of the process, and I hope you participate in the speculation.
You can present your Top 10 in sequential order from one to 10, or you can offer them in reverse order ala David Letterman—whichever you prefer—but I welcome your thoughts. If you don’t mind sharing them publicly, feel free to use the comment feature available at the end of this blog. Or send them to me via e-mail at jim@stti.org. RNL
