New flexible healthcare roles and the purpose of nursing

Current policy aims for healthcare professionals to be trained to work across traditional boundaries. The intention of this move is to improve understanding between the professions, to enhance patient care, to promote job satisfaction and to achieve cost-effectiveness (Department of Health (DoH), 2000). However, there is a risk that the blurring of professional boundaries may result in a loss of the unique contributions of specific professions. In the case of nursing, this may mean that the provision of care that is based on holism, empowerment, and partnership may be lost. This may have an adverse effect on nursing morale and job satisfaction as well as patient care. Nurses need to be clear about the nature of their professional priorities and remit. Where these are incongruent with a culture in which meeting quantifiable targets is a major focus, they must be able to articulate clearly the importance of the unquantifiable and humanistic aspects of care.