The Challenges We Face

This is my first Message From the NLN Chair, following my inauguration at the NLN Education Summit in Orlando, Florida, this past September. As I told NLN members at the Summit, nursing education is at a crossroads. Although the demand for nurses has never been greater, our ability to educate and prepare the future nursing workforce faces extraordinary pressure. We face faculty shortages as educators age and prepare to retire, with younger nurses often drawn to the higher salaries of clinical and private practice. Our programs turn away qualified applicants every year, not because of lack of interest, but because of limited faculty, limited classroom space, and limited clinical placements. Our students, filled with passion and promise, struggle with heavy workloads, financial burdens, and the stress of navigating a health care system already stretched thin. Also, across our universities, budget shortfalls, political pressures, and shifting accreditation landscapes are adding new layers of complexity. Accreditation has always been a cornerstone of quality in nursing education. Agencies, including the NLN Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation (CNEA), safeguard the standards that make our profession respected and trusted. But today we are witnessing a new reality. Several states have begun forming their own accrediting bodies, challenging long-established processes and raising critical questions: How do we maintain national standards that ensure mobility for our graduates? How do we protect the integrity of nursing education when political winds threaten to shape the very definition of quality? The NLN must be at the table, leading with clarity, with evidence, and with an unwavering commitment to students and patients so that accreditation remains about excellence, not ideology. We must also confront financial realities. Nursing is one of the most expensive programs a university can operate, yet too often, our schools are asked to do more with less. Simulation labs, clinical partnerships, and low faculty-to-student ratios are essential, but they are resource-intensive. Also, for our students, rising tuition and the costs of living put nursing education out of reach for too many. This is especially true for students from underrepresented backgrounds, who account for the very diversity our profession needs most. The NLN must continue to advocate fiercely for funding at every level — federal, state, and institutional — to ensure that access to nursing education is not a privilege, but a promise. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a distant future. It is here. It is now. From predictive analytics to virtual simulation, AI has the potential to transform the way we teach and learn. But we must lead with intention. AI cannot replace the human touch, the ethical reasoning, the compassion at the heart of nursing. It must serve the learner, support the educator, and center the patient. Also, it must be integrated in a way that safeguards academic integrity and prepares students to use technology responsibly. The NLN is at the forefront of shaping these standards, helping faculty adapt, helping students thrive, and ensuring innovation does not come at the cost of our values. Our work does not stop at our borders. Around the world, the nursing shortage is real and urgent. Climate change and planetary health are reshaping the conditions in which nurses practice. Migration, pandemics, and social inequities demand that our students be prepared for a global reality. As the NLN, we are extending our partnership globally, sharing knowledge and preparing nurses who can serve not just their communities, but the world. Amid all these challenges, let us never lose sight of why we do the work we do. Nursing is about people. It is about caring for others in their most vulnerable moments. It is about teaching the next generation not just the science but the art of healing. Our charge, as educators and as leaders, is to ensure that no matter how the landscape shifts, we remain steadfast in protecting the human connection at the heart of nursing. So, let us move forward together, bold, unafraid, and united. Let us embrace technology but keep humanity at the center. Let us adapt to politics but never compromise on quality. Let us fight for funding, for equity, and for access, because the future of nursing and the future of health care are on the line. As NLN President and CEO Dr. Beverly Malone has said so powerfully, “In any nursing role — and at any table — finding and using your voice in any nursing role is essential.” As your Chair, I commit to leading with courage, with vision, and with unwavering faith in this profession we love. The challenges are great, but together, our impact will be greater.