Enhancing nurse leadership through research, education and training

This paper aims to highlight the need for research, education and training as a means of enhancing nurse leadership. Nursing, just as many other aspects of the National Health Services (NHS) in United Kingdom (UK), has been in the public eyes in the recent times (Gillett, 2012; Thomas & Richardson, 2016). The medio-public image of nursing is always under scrutiny, because nursing can be perceived as ‘the face’ of the health system. This article traces a brief history of nursing and nursing leadership in order to gain an insight into how research, training and education had helped nursing and its leadership in the past and highlight the role that research, training and education can play in shaping the immediate future and beyond, of nursing and its leadership, in UK. This paper argues for a unified training route for all nurses in UK. It also contends that degree education is most helpful in preparing the twenty first century nurses for the medical and technological advancements. This article argues for the upgrading of nursing education as a means of boosting its professional image as well as enhancing its research capabilities. The second point addressed in this article is the medio-public image of nursing-which, in a way, is exogenous; as, this stems from inadequate hospital resources which has led to high burn-out among English nurses and, which concomitantly is affecting the quality of care given by the nurses and midwives in UK. This is a serious factor that is also affecting media and public perception of nursing.