The education of health care professionals in the year 2000 and beyond: Part 2: The curriculum solution

The education of the health care professional is of interest and concern to the health care professional, but most significantly, that of the health care consumer. Nurse educators have been immersed in curriculum development for the present and the future and have found that a theory-driven, process-oriented curriculum has the best chance of preparing graduates who are consumer oriented. This model was explicated for the education of all health care professionals. Readers who have a son or daughter finishing the second grade in school have within their households a member of the graduating class of 2000. How close to reality and to the wants and needs of the consumers will be the stated behavioral expectations for health care professionals in the few years remaining in the 20th century? Will the graduates of the Class of 2000 who will pursue academic experiences to realize the behavioral expectations satisfy the consumers of health care? The consumers will let us know.