Nursing knowledge as a response to societal needs: a framework for promoting nursing as a profession

Nursing knowledge as a response to societal needs: a framework for promoting nursing as a professionIntroduction: As the population needs for health care at the local level become integrated into the global context, nurses are given the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the modernization of the healthcare system and gain importance and recognition from the political perspective. Nursing today is confronted with the needs and demands of both healthy and ill populations — these can be the result of changing demographics, new technologies, a growing awareness of the rights and voiced expectations of service users etc. Slovenian nurses have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the modernization of the Slovenian healthcare system. This can be achieved by learning from the experiences of other countries and by exploring and addressing existing aspects of the need to gain professional status.Methods: A review of the international literature indexed in the CINAHL database was performed for the period January - August 2010. The key phrases used were: ‘nursing skills and knowledge’, ‘nursing future and politics’, ‘nursing future and responsibility’, ‘nursing future and leadership’. We used only abstracts in English. A total of 343 abstracts were retrieved and assessed. All abstracts