Developing nursing competence: Future proofing nurses for the changing practice requirements of 21st century healthcare.

Abstract

There's a conundrum that is taxing us at the moment – how can we see into the future to know what we need to know, to be prepared for things to come? Obviously none of us has the actual ability to ‘see’ into the future, but we are very good at distilling trends from the past, projecting them forwards and developing plans for action in the here and now. We try to create what Alvin Toffler calls ‘time spanners’ – things to connect us to the future (Toffler, 1970). However, the further we move away from today, the more uncertain we become about our predictions and our ability to cope: our spanners are too short. We can see elements of this conundrum in the preamble to the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) draft Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses, the council stated that: “Registered nurses provide care to people at every stage of life across all care settings. They work in the context of continual change, challenging environments, growing diversity and rapidly evolving technologies. It is therefore essential that they are equipped with the knowledge, confidence and transferrable skills needed to respond to these demands. (NMC, 2017, p.3)”