ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the influences that are currently affecting nursing, both as a profession and as a role within a healthcare team. The increase in advanced nursing practice has become a global trend over the past twenty years and therefore nursing is unlikely to return to its origins. The UK Department of Health (DH) produced a benchmark for advanced level nursing which consists of twenty-eight elements building on the Nursing and Midwifery registration requirements. Nurses continue to embrace advancing roles which were once the domain of medical staff. Nursing has always needed to change its services to meet political demands. Traditional images of nursing may influence others' thinking in terms of nurses' abilities to lead, challenge and influence strategy. The academic level of a nurse relating to perceptions of what nursing is continues to be questioned, with the influence of media reports seen as contributing to the stereotypical and traditional imagery of nursing.
