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Editorial
Project 2000 nurse education is about to be reformed in all the countries of Britain. It was just over a decade ago that nursing eventually dumped its hospital-based, apprenticeship-style of training for this university-based, professional education. The professionalising elite of nursing had long argued for such reform. However, government concerns about the shortfall in the nursing workforce were probably as much of an influence in bringing about this change. For it was then predicted that more nurses would be needed to defuse the "demographic time-bomb", created by Britain's ageing population.
Furthermore nursing already had recruitment and retention problems. "Nice young girls" leaving school (the traditional recruitment fodder of nursing) found the pay, professional status, training and working conditions less attractive than alternative occupations (such as social work, teaching, etc).
The professionalising elite of nursing convincingly argued that Project 2000 could offer an attractive professional education that would produce "knowledgeable doers", who would help transform nursing into a research-based profession that people could feel proud to be a part of. However, Project 2000 education is now thought to be not quite...