For many years now, the problem of finding and maintaining high-quality clinical placements has been prominent in the minds of most nurse educators… A second issue is the longstanding shortage of nursing faculty… The pandemic has brought us to an interesting crossroads in nursing education… As we rapidly innovate new approaches to educate our students, will we as a profession continue to force these new ways into old paradigms?

The nursing workforce has long been marked by a level of racial homogeneity… the U.S. is approximately 60% non-Hispanic white while the nursing workforce is approximately 80% white. In determining our profession’s response to our historical moment, perhaps the best action that can be taken is for every organization to take another step. Instead of returning to old steps, which have not achieved the outcomes we hoped they would, instead of only issuing statements that help others to see our values…

In the wake of the pandemic, many hospitals and healthcare agencies have been forced to freeze hiring and even furlough staff. This means finding a job could be harder than ever for some unknown period of time…  I want to encourage you to step back and do some big picture thinking. Let’s confront these three narratives: I’ll never get a job; I can’t move for a job; I won’t get the job I want… the new ripped jeans of nursing: Public health nursing

Imagine a lake or river on which boats happily float along. The water level is high enough to keep the boats safely above any rocks or debris on the bottom of the river. What happens when the water level is lowered? …In the last several months … a significant amount of resources have rapidly drained out. Now is the moment we are seeing some of our gnarliest problems exposed.

Imagine for a moment that decades ago we had built together a large ocean-going ship designed to transport thousands of helpers across the Atlantic from the U.S. to Europe… Then our ship hit a pandemic-sized iceberg. Who will call all hands on deck to stop and ask the critical questions about our ship, its route, and its destination?

If higher education doesn’t emerge from the pandemic as a smarter, stronger, and more effective contributor to the social mission, we’ll be doubling down on what is already a wavering public opinion… if a rail for improvement is not firmly laid down into the tracks guiding our current work, we may find that the long-term implications of the pandemic are far more negative than the short-term ones. Here are three ways to get started.