NURSING: THE FUTURE
NURSES
LEADERS IN A NEW TIME
LEADERS FOR A NEW TIME
25 March 2007
To be good is noble. To tell
others how to be good is even
nobler and a lot less trouble.
Mark Twain
Crucial to finding the way is this:
there is no beginning or end.
You must make your own map.
Joy Harjo
A Map to the Next World: Poems
PIGLET’S SONG
Let's find a Way today,
that can take us to tomorrow.
We'll follow that Way,
A Way like flowing water.
The sun is high, the road is wide,
and it starts where we are standing.
No one knows how far it goes,
for the road is never-ending.
It goes away,
beyond what we have thought of.
It flows away,
Away like flowing water.
Benjamin Hoff
The Te of Piglet
REFLECTIONS
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Setting the Context
Challenges of Culture Change
Influencing Future Direction
Readiness to Lead
TOWARD 2020
VISIONS FOR NURSING
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The system: health and illness care in 2020
Roles, scopes and practice settings of nurses in
2020
Nursing human resources: number and mix of
nurses in 2020
Nursing education in 2020
Ensuring responsiveness, quality and patient
safety: regulating nurses in 2020
Diversifying nursing: careers in nursing for all
Canadians
GENERATIONS TODAY
Four generations of citizens and patients
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Elders/Traditionalists/Silent Generation (pre-1946)
Boomers (1946-1965)
Generation X (1965 – 1980)
Millennials (1980 - )
Three generations of leaders
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Elders (pre-1946)
Boomers (1946-1965)
Generation X (1965 – 1980)
Three generations of nurses
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Boomers (1946-1965)
Generation X (1965 – 1980)
Millennials (1980 – )
EMERGING NETWORK AGE
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From the Industrial Age to the
Information Age to the Network Age
Network Age
 Distributed
culture
 Decentralized
 Citizen-centered not institutioncentered
CULTURE
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Culture is dynamic and changing over
time
Most individuals are able to adapt: some
have a greater facility to accommodate
otherness in their internal meaning
structure than others
The need for change may be driven by
survival or passion
CULTURES DIFFER
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Basic personality
Perception
Time concepts
Space concepts
Thinking
Language
Non-verbal communication
Values
Behaviors
Social groupings and relationships
They are interconnected and influence each other.
Stephan Dahl
Cultural Diversity,
Globalization and Cultural Convergence
GENERATIONAL VALUES
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Elders: Dedication, sacrifice, hard work,
conformity, law and order, patience, respect for
authority, duty before pleasure, adherence to
rules, honour
Boomers: Optimism, teamwork, personal
gratification, health and wellness, personal growth,
youth, work, involvement
Generation X: Diversity, thinking globally, balance,
techno-literacy, fun, informality, self-reliance,
pragmatism
Millennials: Confidence, civic duty, achievement,
sociability, morality, diversity, street smarts
KEYS TO CULTURAL
TRANSFORMATION
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Scanning the environment for two or three
trends with greatest impact
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Determining implications
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Revisiting the vision/mission – examining
purpose and refining it to short, powerful,
compelling statement of why we do what we do
Banning the old hierarchy and building flexible,
fluid structures and systems that unleash the
energies and spirits of people
KEYS TO CULTURAL
TRANSFORMATION
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Challenging – questioning every policy,
practice, procedure, and assumption,
abandoning those that have little use today
keeping those that reflect the desired future
Communicating with the few powerful,
compelling messages that mobilize people
Dispersing the responsibilities of leadership,
so that we have not one leader but many
leaders at every level of the enterprise
Frances Hesselbein
INFLUENCING THE FUTURE
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Hold the Vision
Know your Strengths
Develop new Skills/Competencies
Envision creatively the Ways
Build on the Best
Be Patient but Persistent
Be Collaborative but Challenging
YOUR RESPONSE
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Have confidence that your profession is
mature, competent and creative enough
to be a leader in this new reality
Re-think the strengths of your
profession to ensure viability in this
new reality
Envision a new way of being as a
nursing profession in this new reality
IMPLICATIONS OF FAILURE
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No significant improvement of health
outcomes in chronic disease management,
continuity of care
Continued major challenges re access to
care
Failure to achieve promises of health
promotion and disease prevention
Failure to emphasize population health
Decreasing patient and provider
satisfaction
IMPLICATIONS OF FAILURE
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Continued challenges re recruitment and
retention of all health care professionals
Failure to effectively use the
competencies and skills of all health
professionals
Failure of nurses to be valued and
credible leaders in this changing health
care environment
Failure to create a truly responsive
health system for the 21st century
MY ADVICE
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Be passionate, personal, persistent, and
patient. Do not give up.
Be bold. Do not worry about those who
think you are crazy.
People will go where value is added.
Hold up the mirror for others to see.
Try different things; small steps, early
wins. If you fall, get back up.
To change the culture of the health care
system, you must be willing to change
yourself.
WALKING THE LABYRINTH
May the light of your souls guide you.
May the light of your souls
bless the work that you do
with the secret love and warmth of your hearts.
May you see in what you do
the beauty of your own souls.
May the sacredness of your work
bring healing, light and renewal
to those who work with you
and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of
refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in bland absences.
May the day never burden.
May dawn find you awake and alert,
approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities
and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night
blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your souls calm, console and renew you.
Adapted from
John O'Donoghue, Anam Cara