Professional polarities in nursing

The urgency to produce an adequate supply of nurses and the juxtaposed professional imperative of promoting safety are critical issues in nursing. To effectively consider these issues, they must be viewed in tandem and managed as polarities rather than problems. Nurse leaders have addressed these issues by advancing the baccalaureate entry level for practice, proposing advanced practice roles that require a Doctor of Nursing Practice, and creating the Clinical Nurse Leader role. These actions have promulgated professional polarization and undermined the potential power of the largest group of healthcare providers in the world. Polarity management offers nurse leaders a way to address these concerns as interdependencies that must be balanced rather than independent problems that must be solved. If managed well, this approach will unite the profession around its higher purpose of making a difference in the health of society and assuage our greatest fear, the devaluation of nursing.