As our world's population surpasses 7 billion, nearly every region in the world is experiencing aging societies. As a result of transformation technology advancements, pathogens have the capability to travel across the globe and infect new populations in a matter of hours. Meanwhile, climate change has reached unprecedented records and will undoubtedly bring increased natural disasters and impacts on our future health care needs. This, in conjunction, with a new age of technological advancement and Industry 4.0, particularly in the health care sector, will create a virtually unrecognizable scenario in just 10, 15, or 20 years' time, if not sooner. In response, governments, institutions, companies, and individuals are strategizing on how to best adapt to the forthcoming impacts on health care sectors around the globe. In this sense, disruption should be seen as a catalyst for change. Disruption will speed up in every corner of the world and its citizens will undoubtedly be impacted.
If there is one thing that nurse administrators must embrace, it is agility. Agility must be conceptualized and embedded into the culture of today's leaders and global workforce. Learning agility will require both the ability to learn and, just as importantly, to unlearn the ways in which work has traditionally been done. Education systems need a revolution that will force all actors into the learning process to explore new ways of preparing our learners. Innovative partnerships between academia and practice will be essential. This will create a culture of, and passion for, change. We must rethink the basics of education and what it means to achieve learning outcomes. Critical thinking, and the ability to work and lead interprofessional teams, will become more essential skills. In today's globalized world, we have no choice but to acknowledge and embrace education that transcends borders with seamless mobility in thinking and movement. To do this, measures must be taken to support innovative models and methods that will close the growing skills gap in today's workforce.
Nursing leaders should feel inspired by global initiatives spearheaded by the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, we should embrace the UN High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth (HEEG), the WHO Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which for the first time, consider Nursing as a key asset rather than an expense. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Future of Nursing 2020-2030 study; the WHO designated year of the nurse and midwife; the WHO State of the World's Nursing and Midwifery 2020 reports; and the Nursing Now Campaign also serve as global disruptors that signify the importance of the Nursing and Midwifery professions to the greater international community. This shift was emphasized by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the 2019 ICN Congress in Singapore, where he challenged every member state to bring 1 nurse and 1 midwife to the 2020 World Health Assembly. He said, "The world must hear their voices and their stories."1
Our last Nursing Administration Quarterly issue, Disruption in Healthcare, Part 1, introduced some of the major changes or disruptors to health care that we will see in the coming years, such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, advances in robotics, big data, and chat bots. While part 1 of this series highlights the implementation of practice disruptors and the next era of nursing, part 2 focuses on how best to prepare the profession for these changes. Amidst these disruptors, we must consider changes in education (ie, how and where do we educate future clinicians?), emerging ethical issues (ie, ethics of gene therapy), regulation (ie, how do we assess and ensure the competence of medical robotics and AI?), and health care delivery (ie, telehealth, virtual/augmented reality, wearable devices, etc). This issue highlights emerging professional considerations in an age of unstoppable change. This is surely a time of learning and adaptation. Gone are our historical rituals. These must be replaced with a "fit for practice" and "right touch regulation." This is our new and exciting disruptive world.
-Joyce A. Batcheller, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
RWJ Executive Nurse Fellow Alumna
Adjunct Faculty
School of Nursing
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Lubbock, Texas
President
CNO Solutions
Austin, Texas
-Franklin A. Shaffer, EdD, RN, FAAN, FFNMRCSI
President and Chief Executive Officer
CGFNS International, Inc
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
REFERENCE