One of the greatest joys of being president of the NLN is traveling around the country and meeting faculty from all types of nursing education programs. I am constantly energized by nurse educators, by their commitment to their students and by their overwhelming desire to do the right thing. Often I am asked questions, such as these, regarding content to cover and skills to emphasize: "What do you think, Elaine, will be the future for nursing education? What trends are most significant? What will curricula look like in 10 or 20 years?"

Actually, I have never been really big on predicting the future. Foretelling trends has its limitations; often events that appear to be in ...