title: Johns Hopkins address: does nursing have a future?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To outline the importance of identifying where nursing is heading as a profession and explore the metaphors it uses to explain its role to society. Current images of nursing are confused. Nurses should articulate clearly why nursing should be retained as a social force for improving health and meeting the needs of vulnerable people.
  
  
  METHODS
  The historical development of nursing considering the metaphors used.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because of contemporary pressures on nursing, the metaphors used are inconsistent and require interpretation. Nurses should find new metaphors and resolve complex internal tensions. Unless nursing can articulate its primary function more cogently, it risks extinction.
authors.affiliation: Institute Royal College of Nursing, London, UK.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Kitson
mesh_terms: D006676:History of Nursing; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D019365:Metaphor; D009729:Nursing / Q000639:trends*; D009937:Organizational Objectives