Last month, I had the honor of speaking to the Florida Organization of Nurse Leaders (FONL) at their Annual Conference in Daytona Beach. This conference was the 55th celebration of the organization’s inception.
The title of my talk was, Creating the Future of Healthcare through the Human Vision of Nursing.
In this talk, I covered three objectives:
- To illustrate and imagine a future state of healthcare.
- To demonstrate how to pivot in nursing toward new inspiration.
- To propose how to embrace change through innovation.
Now, if you are reading this post, I want you to imagine what your ideal version of nursing looks like in the future. We so often reflect on nursing’s historical past to learn how far we have come as a profession. However, to imagine, innovate, and actively create the future to inspire others is also part of our current responsibility.
We know that every person needs healthcare periodically throughout their lives. We also know that healthcare delivery models are continuously changing as society evolves. After all, the only constant we have is change. As a profession, we are all aware of the expression, “we have always done it this way”. However, to evolve and thrive as a profession in this rapidly advancing digital age, and to expect do all things the way we have always done them, will most certainly leave us behind and vulnerable to the future.
Thus, I believe it should be us, nurses as a profession, individually and collectively, innovating a future for the profession that creates and incorporates new advancements in ways that keep the humanity in healthcare. Let us develop our future history through the work we do today, while inspiring the next generation of nurses to come.
Now you may wonder, how do I even start to imagine this future state of nursing? I would encourage you to take a few minutes away from your daily responsibilities and let your creative mind explore and ideate.
As you start, you may have thoughts enter your mind about barriers to an ideal professional nursing state. Park those thoughts to the side for now and let your imagination go. Flip the known challenges and turn them into solved problems in the future.
As you make your list, I want you to consider yourself as part of this future. Imagine your ideal role in creating this future state of nursing. How would you get there? A critical part of advancing a profession is imagining, inspiring, and innovating for the future.
We are in the last month of 2025. While January is often a time for planning the future for the new year, what if you started to consider that now?
Cheers to the remaining days of 2025. Sincerely, ~ Dr. Kelley
