Futures thinking: preparing nurses to think for tomorrow
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Updated: May 30, 2026

Using Learning Outcome Measures to assess Doctoral Nursing Education
Published on: June 21, 2010
Patricia Freed1, Dorcas E McLaughlin
1St. Louis University School of Nursing, Missouri, USA. pfreed@slu.edu
Abstract:
Nursing students must be prepared with skills to help them think for the future. Thinking for the future means that students have the ability to envision desired futures for nursing and health care, embrace change and complexity, and believe that they can make a difference. Readers are introduced to the field of futures studies along with strategies and tools to teach futures skills in the nursing curriculum. Basic ideas and assumptions underlying futures studies are presented, and an argument for the importance of futures thinking to nursing education is made.
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