NINR’s Cashion Discusses ‘Future of Nursing’

NINR acting director Dr. Ann Cashion was one of several nursing organization leaders invited to present comments recently at the public session for the Committee on the Future of Nursing 2020-2030. The committee, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, will examine current and future challenges in developing its recommendations for nursing in the next decade.

Cashion noted that nursing science’s primary focus is on improving the quality of a person’s life at any age—not necessarily on curing disease. Describing NINR-supported science in key research areas such as symptom science, wellness, self-management and end-of-life and palliative care, she highlighted the work of NINR scientists who discovered biomarkers of neuronal damage in athletes and military personnel following traumatic brain injury, and who developed early palliative care interventions tailored to patients with newly diagnosed incurable cancer.

“We are very proud of the contribution that nursing science has made to improving health and to supporting the nursing field, and we are excited about what can be achieved in the future,” said Cashion, She urged the committee to highlight the importance of nursing science in advancing nursing, with a specific call for more Ph.D.-trained nurses.