As the 1993-95 NLN Board of Governors struggled with policy decisions surrounding the preparation of the nursing workforce for a restructured health care system, it felt that such decisions needed to reflect a futuristic view of both health care and education. Specific questions about nursing education and the nursing workforce could then be answered in terms of the opportunities within that future. The Commission Because of the complexity of nursing workforce issues, the Board endorsed the creation of a President's Commission to address them. Richard Lamm, health reform advocate and former Governor of Colorado, chaired the Commission. High costs, poor outcomes, and maldistribution of resources have characterized U.S. health care for decades, and these trends have been exacerbated over the last three years.
Nursing has a moral obligation to promote wise use of the public's money.
The demand for RN's with higher levels of education is increasing. Increases in actual numbers of nursing jobs outside the acute care setting will be less than those eliminated in acute care settings. Aggregate data on nursing supply and demand distort the unique situation in many states. Fear of another severe nursing shortage leads to caution in calling for closures of nursing programs or sharp reductions in enrollments. However, it is unlikely that the health care system of 2000 will require as many nurses as the system of 1990.