James Parsons, director of Arrows Group, said: ‘This is a commendable move - the government says that these new rules aim to improve the standard of patient care, which of course is of utmost importance.
‘But it runs contra to the most pressing issue, which is nursing skills shortages across the NHS. By introducing these stricter requirements, the NHS may in fact find itself with lower standards of patient care, because it will struggle to find the talent it needs.
‘An increasingly high percentage of nurses working in the NHS are foreign nationals and raising the bar at entry point would have to be communicated clearly and rolled out internationally as the NHS is staffed by an international resource pool. There are critical staffing shortages across the NHS and the most pressing issue is looking at options that solve this rather than complicating it.'
Editors' blog: Will an all-degree nursing profession improve care?
Nurse blog: Nursing by degree
All Comments
Caroline Downes - 17 November 2009
If all the nurses become "Doctors" who is left to care for the patient, you know the stuff that is mundane and menial!
Maybe we should go back to the old system of SRN and SEN then you could provide some form of CARE to the patient.
Lavinia Fernandes - 17 November 2009
I have also heard that diploma nurses will be able to fast track to the degree. This means that these nurses would have to released from their work areas to do so \(I presume). Isn't this causing another shortage of staff. My experience is that qualified nurses are already finding it difficult to attend education days, particularly in times when education budgets have been cut. But I have read anything, as yet, to how fast tracking and further education could be accommodated whilst retaining staff levels.
- 04 December 2009
It is not a question of nurses becoming 'doctors' it is a fact that in the modern NHS we are increasingly faced with more complex tasks and higher expectations than ever before. Why are caring and having a degree mutually exclusive? I have a masters degree in nursing and I would never put paperwork above patient care. I would argue that paperwork is a 'mundane' task but it is necessary for safe patient care. Yes there are bad nurses who have a degree. There are also bad nurses who have a diploma. What is important is that we instill a sense of professional pride and duty of patient care in our students and then support nurses to exact this care in practice. It is equally important that with the ever increasing demand on nursing skills and time that nurses are able to think critically and innovatively and change nursing practice at the front line to benefit patients. Ideals which will be more effectively achieved if nursing is an all graduate profession.
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