Rethinking the nursing career structure: a skills acquisition model.
The current debate on the future of nursing education and the role of the nurse stems from the recent reports from the Royal College of Nursing (1) and the United Kingdom Central Council (2). In addition to supporting the recommendations of the earlier Platt Report (3) on the contents and contexts of nursing education, these reinforce the close relationships between nursing education and personnel planning. This paper explores the opportunities available to the nursing organisation to develop supportive education programmes that meet the needs of individuals and the organisation and develop the clinical career structure for those nurses wanting to remain in direct care. In this way the problems of staff recruitment and retention could be overcome through the promotion of the clinical role as a desirable career goal in its own right.