The Nursing Role and the Problem of Implementation

Abstract

The concept of role expansion for the nurse practitioner hardly merits perpetual exploration, other than acknowledging that it has to be an on-going process. This is certainly the case if we believe that we ought to be sensitive to changing needs for health services and better ways of providing services. The process of implementing role change, where evidence suggests such a change is needed, is something else. As persons who have struggled with nursing education for many years, irrespective of the changing scene essentially or situationally, however clumsy or irrelevant our attempts, one problem continues to plague us. This problem defined at different times and perhaps with changing degrees of sophistication by the social scientists, is what we simply call "role conflict." It seems to me that until we acquire some degree of skill in dealing with this phenomenon, our attempts at changing the focus of nursing education or improving present cur-riculums are futile.