Caring is costly. Responding to society's need for access to health care, nurses expanded their scope of professional practice. Nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists began to appear in the 1970s and the ANA, in conjunction with nursing and medical groups, addressed the questions of educational program standards, certification, and scope of practice. The kind of health care Lillian Wald began preaching and practicing in 1893 is the kind the people of this country are still crying for.
Comfort measures do make a difference.
As nurses, we'll be dealt a hand in the reimbursement game only when we have something relevant to say. For the first time since our beginnings, the profession is taking time to openly discuss sexism, racism, entry level degrees for professional practice, independent nursing functions, and patterns of professional growth. As soon as a man was stabilized on medication, we tried to give him some say in his drug treatment. All rights reserved.