Career development in nursing: an individual and professional responsibility.

Nursing with its variety of career options has much to offer individuals who can capitalize on their skills, growth potential, and professional opportunities through planned career development. More needs to be done, however; as Lysaught observes, "Nursing is the only profession that has no career path related to the intrinsic reason that brought people to the profession in the first place." Working together, nursing service and education must prepare nurses who view nursing as a career and not just as a series of jobs, rewarding nurses for direct patient care services, addressing professional issues that will assist nurses in their career development, providing opportunities for career planning, and "finding ways to share with prospective nurses the excitement and challenge of nursing".