Health and Healthcare Education Current State

Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century – Embracing a Digital World, 3rd Edition
Book 2:  Nursing Education and Digital Health Strategies

2022 Productivity Press: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003281009

Chapter 3

Authors: Jane Marie Kirschling, Mary Etta Mills

The US complex healthcare system continues to evolve to meet the needs of the population. Consequently, nursing education continues to transform and especially now, given the clarion call in the United States to address health inequities. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity (2021) clearly articulates the critical role that the nursing profession must play to achieve health equity—including ‘aligning public health, health care, social services and public policies.’ This chapter explores re-envisioning the nursing education roadmap, the leading dimensions of professional nursing education, technology and practice innovations, health care education beyond nursing, and attention to the intangibles. By exploring these areas, it is hoped that the reader will gain an understanding of the nature of the work that must be done in the coming years to truly address health inequities within an evolving and complex health care system and the importance of technology and informatics.