Troubling Trend: Fewer Nurses May Be Seeking Higher Education

A disconcerting trend of fewer registered nurses seeking higher education, shown in a recent nurse survey by AMN Healthcare and The Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Professionals, could affect the health care industry-wide goals of maintaining or improving quality in an era of change. If it continues, this trend moves in the opposite direction advocated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) 2010 report, The Future of Nursing-Leading Change, Advancing Health,1 which urged nurses to seek higher levels of education and training, practice to the full extent of their education, and seek to become full partners in redesigning health care. This report was lauded as a watershed in the advancement of patient-care quality and value-based medicine in an era of health care reform.