Health care workforce priorities: what nursing should do now.

We provide an appraisal of the adequacy of the aggregate supply of nurses and the appropriateness of their educational mix in view of anticipated changes in health care. We view the supply as adequate, but the educational mix as deficient with regard to nurses with baccalaureate and higher degrees who will be in greatest demand in new and expanding roles. Five priority areas are identified in which nursing can make particularly important contributions to improving health and health care: restructuring hospitals, improving primary care availability, contributing to the viability of academic health centers, improving care of the underserved, and redesigning the role of public health in a reformed health care system.