Nurses will have to have a Degree.

[Gromit]

New changes will mean that to become a Nurse, applicants will need a Degree.

http://www.telegraph....ee-in-four-years.html

Do you think that is necessary? Will it result in better care? Will they have to pay them graduate levels of pay? Will this increase recruitment, or will more have to come from overseas?

There is apparently already a projected recruitment crisis for Nurses.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8044595.stm

[daffy654]

I thought all nurses had to have a degree already. My brother started a nursing degree a few (around 10) years back but never finished it due to lack of funding.

[youngmafbog]

Yes it appears you can only get in by a degree, my daughter had the same problem. Nurses dont get paid enough to get into debt for Uni so she gave up.

I dont believe they all need it and vocational training should be the answer.

Typical of this govenrmant though they deride anyone without a degree.

[anotheoldgit]

What is wrong with the old method, like an apprenticeship they learned hands on at the coal face (so to speak) I can't see how an expensive degree will make them better nurses.

You mentioned them coming from overseas Gromit, will they only be accepted if they have a degree? Will their degrees meet UK requirements? Or will they come in to study for a degree, and if so who will pay their Uni. fees?

[Sqad]

Why not, everyone has one now, even the intellectually challenged seem to get them.

Nurses do not need a degree......they need cleanliness and devotion to the Nursing Profession

Specialised Academic work can easily be picked up "on the job"

[New Judge]

Sadly this is symptomatic of the State education system in the UK today.

In the past, a few ‘O’ Levels or GCSEs would be sufficient for a person to set out on this vocation. Today, those with GCSEs would struggle to pass the 11-plus, those with (so-called) ‘A’ Levels would struggle to pass the old ‘O’ levels and those with a degree would be hard pushed to attain a few good ‘A’ Levels.

A degree these days is no guarantee to a successful career, nor is it any indication to an employer that an applicant for a job is in any way exceptional (as it should be). As has been said, it is almost the norm.

Insisting on a degree to enter nursing is simply a way of trying to ensure that those applying have attained a reasonable standard of education. And it’s a shame.

[rov1200]

There was a quote in todays paper saying if qualified nurses felt it was below them to empty bedpans and provide care there are the lowly qualified Nurse assistants with NVQ's to do the job

The result of this means in future there will probably a lack of care but at least when the nurse gives you a jab her mind may stray onto important things like furthering her career.

[Sqad]

Odd isn't it....some 30 or 40yrs ago, many Teaching Hospitals throughout the country only took girls with high education standards and at hospitals like Bart's, Guy's St Thomas's, the London and other London teaching hospital it was said that their fathers had to be in "Who's Who" to get a place.

These "high borne ladies" never shirked a cleaning task or the emptying of bed pans.

Yes, yes....time have changed I know.

[buildersmate]

Those with long memories will recall that not so long ago there were two qualifications of nurse - Registered Nurse and Enrolled Nurse. The former came from studying to a higher level on a longer course and was more academic, the latter was a shorter more vocational course of training. Twenty years ago it was merged into one.
It wasn't broke then, so didn't need fixing - having survived intact for about 60 years or so.
Give it a couple of years of realisation that not all nurses need academic qualifications and I'm sure someone will introduce a vocational entry point again. Bingo! - the Enrolled Nurse will make a comeback.

[dothawkes31]

My mum was a nurse and did her training at Pendlebury Hospital then at 18 and a half they sent her to Monsell to nurse typhoid patients, she didn't need a degree to knwo they were dying and she just needed to make then comfortable and ease their pain.

[Sandy-Wroe]

An ability to put people at ease, and be at ease with them yourself, is something that can't be learnt from books. It's something that most good nurses have.
A lot of prospective nurses will be lost to the profession because they might feel they don't want to follow an academic path.

[abstibus]

There has long been a debate within Nursing - 'Is it a science or an art?'
While I fully agree that nurses need an evidence base for practice (science) which they are taught at university, they also need to learn that the patients they care for are individuals, not 'cases', that they do not fit 'models' of care', and should treat them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect (art).