Nursing to become graduate entry

All new nurses in England will have to be educated to degree level from 2013, the government has announced.

The move will help nurses meet the increasingly complex needs of patients more safely and effectively, it said.

The extra one or two years of training needed for nurses to obtain a degree will include a focus on gaining experience in community health teams.

The move follows a recommendation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The NMC, the regulatory body for nurses, is developing new standards for nurse education, which it plans to announce next autumn.

This is an important and historic development Dr Peter Carter Royal College of Nursing Send us your comments

Current training involves a combination of theoretical and practical work as nurses work towards a diploma, but the new standards, which are open to consultation, will include a focus on giving students community health experience.

Trainees will also shadow school health nurses and district nurses who work with people in their own homes.

Best possible start

Health Minister for England Ann Keen said: "Nurses are the largest single profession within the health service, and are critical to the delivery of high quality healthcare.

"By bringing in degree-level registration we can ensure new nurses have the best possible start to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

"Degree-level education will provide new nurses with the decision-making skills they need to make high-level judgements in the transformed NHS."

The Chief Nursing Officer, Christine Beasley, said: "We need to make sure that not only do nurses need to care and have compassion, but they also need to have real ability to think, to make critical decisions and have technical skills.

"What we're doing now is to look to the future, to make sure we are preparing nurses to do the very best they can for our patients and community."

Wales has already introduced degree level training for nurses since 2004.

Clinical knowledge

Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), called the move "an important and historic development".

He said: "All nurses need to put quality care at the centre of what they do, and they also need extensive knowledge, analytical skills and experience to work in a range of settings.

"Many nursing roles are demanding and involve increasingly advanced levels of practice and clinical knowledge."

Dr Carter said the move was not designed to restrict entry to the nursing profession.

"We must ensure that the door to nursing continues to be as wide as possible.

"Students must also be properly supported to continue in their studies."

Gail Adams, head of nursing at the union, UNISON, said they want the profession to retain its caring reputation.

She said: "Our concerns throughout have been to make sure that the profession, whether you're a nurse or a midwife, that we're actually reflecting the society that we care for and I think one of the concerns that colleagues have had is about making sure the right emphasis is placed on the care and compassion that nurses give and that shouldn't be solely based on their level of academia."

Michael Summers, vice-chairman of the Patients Association, welcomed the move.

"I don't think anybody could really complain about nursing being taught to a high level," he said.

Undue pressure

But the RCN is concerned that nurses are being pushed into practices which mean that patient care is being compromised.

The organisation is to investigate the extent to which they are coming under undue pressure to meet key targets in the NHS.

It is also concerned that nurses are being pressurised into manipulating data and falsifying information around key targets.

Dr Carter acknowledged that targets had helped to improve patient care and drive down waiting times.

But he said: "It is, however, completely unacceptable when meeting a target comes before the delivery of patient care, or when hitting a statistic takes priority over clinical need."