1986 and beyond. Nursing's future.

Predicting the future is a risky effort for nursing administrators. What we can do is reevaluate our past and learn how the lessons of prior eras can help us understand the trends affecting health care and nursing and plan strategies for moving nursing forward. Specifically, to move forward we must effectively deal with our image, mechanism for educating students, attainment of public accountability and professional autonomy, political skills, and becoming more actively involved in research to document the value of nursing.