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The statement by Schlotfeldt (1989/2013) that "Nursing's future will be created only as the discipline underlying nursing practices is identified, structured, and continuously updated by systematic inquiry" (p.15) was first made in the 1980's, before the twenty first century. I believe that the structures of the nursing discipline were still in their infancy and nursing education at higher levels was still evolving. She seemed passionate about the profession and was of the view that nursing has to legitimately earn its position as a profession and not just remain as an extension or subsidiary of other healthcare functions such as discovering and treating human ills. Schlotfeldt wanted the nursing profession to be regarded on equal levels as other learned professions of physicians and lawyers (p.16).

Schlotfeldt (2013) further explained the strategies of nursing claiming it place among learned professions to include having structured institutionalized goals to render services that are essential and beneficial to society and well as continuously advancing knowledge with a view towards improving practices (p. 16). Nursing could not be considered as a profession if it was stagnant in its practices and was not properly regulated. Tan (2011) explained in their paper that "Knowledge is generated through discovery, and through the processes of knowledge transfer at teaching, application in practice, and integration with other knowledge, more knowledge is gained".

Personally, I think Schlotfeldt's statement is valid because it is important for the nursing profession to have rules that would guide the activities of those who practice it and to set the minimum requirements that is essential for a person to practice as a professional in that field. Schlotfeldt (2013) states that the caring functions of nurses in promoting the health and well-being of all human beings is finally being recognized by thinking people, including scholarly nurses. For example, nurse abide by the code of ethics that is prescribed by the American Nurses' Association. We need to take leadership roles in our profession and dialogue with other professionals to implement measures that lead to improvement in the profession. This can be achieved through education and research. Education helps us to increase our knowledge and provide evidence-based practices that can stand the test of time in our modern world. As an advanced nurse practitioner, my role is to gain increased knowledge that would help me to contribute to the improvement in nursing science through practice and teaching.