Education is the single most important determinant of the capacity to deliver health care. But according to a recent report, nursing is lagging behind other professions. Frances Pickersgill gives a personal view of its implications

DESPITE THE fanfares and self congratulation, the existing system of nurse education does not equip nurses to function as equals with their colleagues in the world of health care - or any other world. Nor does it allow nurses to function as equals with their peers. So says a recent report from the Centre for Policy in Nursing Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Traynor and Rafferty 1998). Centre researchers Ann Marie Rafferty and Michael Traynor believe that education is not merely about learning and teaching or competence and outcomes or even self-directed learning and improvement. It is the single most important determinant of the capacity to deliver complex health care.