CHRONIC ILLNESS MANAGEMENT IN THE YEAR-2005

Nurses must study the future of chronic illness management so they can anticipate change and influence the direction it takes. The driving f orces of change include social, technological, economic, political, an d environmental factors. Pressure to provide value will require provid ers, insurers, and purchasers to cooperate and coordinate health care services. The preferable future of chronic illness management involves nurses functioning in the role of care coordinators in disease manage ment. To achieve the preferable future the nursing community must comm unicate the ability of nurses to coordinate care, be involved in devel oping clinical practice guidelines, produce more highly educated nurse executives capable of assuming positions of power within the communit y, develop new models of care and new programs to facilitate change, f orm single service networks that can subcontract with health plans, an d prepare future advanced practice nurses in both the art of nursing a nd the business of caring.