Ethical challenges of the future for the nursing profession

Abstract

After the publication of Healthfor All in the 21st Century by the World
 Health Organisation in 1999, many articles and books on healthcare
 ethics began to raise the issue about the future direction of the nursing
 profession. Though some authors claimed that the role of nursing and
 midwifery in the health care systems of the twenty-first century would
 definitely preserve many features of the past, others argued that today's
 dramatic changes and rapid developments, globalisation, technological
 advancement and demographic changes would create inevitably future
 challenges and opportunities.
 In Malta, nursing and midwifery are now well-established healthcare
 professions, having a place among thofessionals in nursing and
 midwifery should not only look with sate respected professions, with a
 university-based education. Health professionals in nursing and
 midwifery should not only look with satisfaction at past achievements
 and present accomplishments, they also must courageously challenge
 the present system, skills, attitudes and mentalities in order to prepare
 themselves more adequately for the future. They must never be afraid
 to raise such questions: What should be the ambitions of nursing and
 midwifery in the twenty-first century? Have the professional goals
 that nursing and midwifery been moving towards become now less
 appropriate? Do they need to be redefined? What changes and new
 skills are required in order to remain relevant for the healthcare system
 of tomorrow?

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