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?