[Future nursing opportunities - professionalisation and restructuring of scope of duties].

Demographic trends and expected changes regarding future health care require substantial structural reforms of the German health care system. It is generally assumed that nursing education and training as well as curriculum development and also the competencies of professional nurses must adapt to the changing demands of health care supply. Moreover, the expected shortage of general practitioners demands solutions for easing their growing workload, which will include the assignment of certain services to health care professionals which perform these services autonomously or in behalf of the practitioner. Consequently, nurses have to expand their scope of skills and expertise. In order to prepare nurses for their new and extended roles, different curricula for professional and academic educational programmes are currently developed. If nurses are to perform additional tasks, it is essential to delegate some of their regular duties to health care assistants. Consequently the latter must be included in the reform process since their current range of duties will be modified as well.