AACN REGIONAL MEETINGS TO DEFINE
CORE CURRICULA FOR BACCALAUREATE NURSING EDUCATION
Invitational Roundtables to Set Stage
for Revision of Association's
Baccalaureate Essentials Document
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 19, 1996 -- Amid
the dramatic changes that continue to reshape how and where
health care is delivered, the American Association of Colleges
of Nursing (AACN) will convene nursing leaders in a series
of roundtable meetings to define the roles and needed competencies
of entry-level professional nurses for the 21st century.
The two invitational roundtables, to be
held February 5-7 and 12-14, 1997 in Baltimore, Maryland,
are the first in a far-reaching series of consensus-building
meetings that will culminate in revision of the Essentials
of College and University Education for Professional Nursing,
AACN's landmark set of core standards for baccalaureate-degree
nursing education first released in 1986. The meetings will
bring together individuals from various backgrounds and
settings, representing both practice and education arenas,
and a range of organizations to discuss the knowledge and
skills that baccalaureate-prepared nurses must possess to
practice in the evolving health care system.
Following the roundtable sessions, AACN
will sponsor five regional working meetings to receive comment
on a draft statement -- to be developed from the outcome
of the roundtables -- that defines the role and needed competencies
of the baccalaureate-prepared nurse for a changed health
care environment. Held across the nation over ten months
between spring and fall 1997, the regional meetings will
seek the input of a broad spectrum of educators, administrators,
clinicians, and other nursing leaders and interested individuals
in also defining the core educational experiences necessary
to produce today's entry-level professional nurse. In addition
to review at the regional meetings, the draft AACN statement
will be distributed to all schools of nursing at the nation's
universities and four-year colleges and appropriate nursing
and higher education organizations.
Since its initial release, the Essentials
has provided a central framework for designing baccalaureate
nursing programs nationwide. Annually, several thousand
copies of the document are purchased by nursing schools,
students, and clinicians.
"However, particularly within the
last five years, the principles shaping the organization
of U.S. health care delivery have changed profoundly," explains
AACN President Carole A. Anderson, PhD, RN, FAAN. "Inpatient
stays have been markedly shortened due to breakthroughs
in technology and the growing trend to allow recuperation
in the home. Moreover, this movement of patients out of
the hospital "quicker and sicker" has been augmented by
expanding managed care networks with a strong focus on bottom-line
costs. Indeed, the current practice environment has grown
exceedingly complex, requiring nursing clinicians who can
master complex sets of information, coordinate a variety
of care experiences, and use technology both to deliver
care and evaluate patients' outcomes."
"Clearly," Dr. Anderson adds, "a new
set of professional nursing skills are needed for a health
care system that now focuses on costs, quality control,
multidisciplinary preparation, role expansion and diffusion,
more advanced technology, and effective delegation and referral.
As a result, the component of the Essentials
that relates to clinical competencies must be updated to
create a clinician who can function effectively in a system
with markedly different conditions and values."
AACN's roundtable and regional meetings
will provide the opportunity to move toward a national consensus
on what should be included in the education of the entry-level
professional nurse. Participants will address not only the
clinical competencies needed for current practice, but also
the technological and other innovations in curricula needed
to achieve those competencies. The final recommendations
of AACN's Task Force on the Essentials of Baccalaureate
Education for Professional Nurses, the panel that is developing
the revised Essentials document, will evolve
from the comments received at the roundtable and regional
conferences.
"These forums will lay the groundwork
for ensuring that AACN's revised Essentials
answers the health system's need for a more expansive and
informative vision of who today's entry-level professional
nurse must be," Dr. Anderson says. "The goal of our seeking
such broad input is clear -- to not only help schools produce
the baccalaureate nurse that the health system now requires,
but also to create a document backed by wide professional
support."
The five regional meetings in 1997 are scheduled
for April 4-5 (Chicago, IL), April 25-26 (Philadelphia,
PA), June 20-21 (Seattle, WA), September 19-20 (Dallas,
TX), and September 26-27 (Orlando, FL). Contact AACN at
202-463-6930, or go to upcoming
conferences for details on registration fees and deadlines.
The American Association of Colleges
of Nursing is the national voice for university and four-year-college
education programs in nursing. Representing more than 580
member schools of nursing at public and private institutions
nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental advocacy,
data collection, publications, and other programs work to
establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement
those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve
health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.
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CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
