Do nurses really care? An agenda for higher education following recent mergers

This paper considers how the mergers of colleges of nursing into higher education may offer an opportunity to address the situation revealed in a previous paper, which suggested that nursing as practised, rather than as theorized, fails to live up to its claim to be regarded consistently as a caring profession. The economic position in which higher education currently finds itself, and which impacts on mergers, is summarized before reforms to nurse education are considered, in terms of their implications for students, staff, research, and the courses themselves. The agenda for change is substantial and urgent. The paper concludes by maintaining that the absorption of colleges of nursing into higher education is to be seen, not as a threat, but as an unprecedented opportunity for nursing to begin to realize fully its professional aspirations.