Nurses needing degrees

Yes, you do need a degree now - and there are various types of nursing degree. Nursing is a very different profession these days.

Without doubt.. They have all had to have a degree for at least the last 25 years.
Every NHS professional in the NHS has to have at least a first degree.
Now you do have to pay for it yourself, regardless of your subject in health care.

I do think it is wrong that student nurses should have to pay as if they were studying in the same way as other students. A new student may just be another pair of hands but soon they are an important part of the team. There must be another way.

Nurses are expected to do a lot more now and be able to go on to a higher level. My DD did her degree years ago and because she had done pharmacology as part of her degree she saved a man's life when a doctor mis prescribed.
She has done lots of further training that needed degree level qualification to do.
She is now a senior oncology nurse and has passed a course enabling her to prescribe for oncology patients. This takes a huge burden off the doctors.

I think higher-level training is a great idea for people who'll be going into responsible jobs. As for students having to get into debt, please don't get me started! I think we've lost that battle for a good while yet.
Now, could someone please extend the idea to cover MPs, town & county councillors, all kinds of professional counsellors, and so forth? (Except they should pay for the privilege...)

I recently was seen by the nurse at my local surgery. I was surprised at the questions she was asking and I said, 'I've already discussed all this with the doctor, you're a nurse not a doctor'.

She was rather put out and made a mess of my arm when she took a blood sample. I still have the bruise a week later!

I know that doctors are very busy but I don't think nurses should be used as a substitute.

Nursing is no longer just about caring. It is now a highly technical job. It is nurses operating and monitoring all those many machines and therapies that can be literally a matter of life and death for so many people.

I want to know that the people operating all those machines, administering those highly toxic drugs, know exactly what they are doing and these days the training they receive is at degree level so they should get the degree that goes with that high level of nursing.

Doctors are called 'doctors' because their training gives them the equivalent of a first degree and a doctorate. It follows that nurses - and paramedics should have a first degree.

From personal experience recently. I have far more confidence in the first degree trained nurses and paramedics than I do in the doctors.

I’m not surprised the nurse was ‘rather put out’, mum2three. They are well qualified professionals and deserve respect. I have had excellent care from nurses at my GP surgery. No complaints at all.

Anyone in the medical world, from consultants down, are well aware that nurses are incredibly experienced and knowledgeable.

Give me a nurse any day

My granddaughter is a nurse and when she graduated she worked in a hospital and had to study further because she was specialising in intensive care. There are so many things they have to learn and keep up to date with as well as keeping hands on work. Very different now, things change all the time. I also have a grandson who is a doctor and he studied for 8 years and so it continues because he is specialising. Horrendous debts owed to the University but he loves his work.
I would trust a doctor for advice first and a nurse to see the advice carried out. They both deserve our recognition for different skills.

Barleyfields

I’m not surprised the nurse was ‘rather put out’, mum2three. They are well qualified professionals and deserve respect. I have had excellent care from nurses at my GP surgery. No complaints at all.

It was a heart specialist nurse, who discovered that medication was making me so unwell, when a number of cardiologists couldn't get to the bottom of it.
Also, I have nothing but respect for my specialist RA nurses, they are so knowledgeable and supportive.

I found your treatment of the nurse, quitee disrespectful. mum2three.

Our school back in the 50s offered a pre-nursing course to those interested. This included hands on experience and education of appropriate courses at A level including biology - can’t remember the others.

Quite forward thinking.

mum2three

I recently was seen by the nurse at my local surgery. I was surprised at the questions she was asking and I said, 'I've already discussed all this with the doctor, you're a nurse not a doctor'.

She was rather put out and made a mess of my arm when she took a blood sample. I still have the bruise a week later!

I know that doctors are very busy but I don't think nurses should be used as a substitute.

I find that a bit disrespectful, to be honest. Nurses are NOT a substitute for a doctor, but they are highly trained professionals in their own right, and deserve credit for that. Nowadays, with specialist nursing degrees, many nurses might actually know more than certain doctors.

Sometimes nurses see things that doctors miss.
Thirty odd years ago I was rather ill. Temperature, headaches , lethargy. 2 GPs told me I had Yuppy Flu. Which was being bandied around at the time.

I'd been sent for blood work, the nurse took one look at me and called an ambulance.

I ended up, quite poorly with pneumonia, in hospital for 2 weeks.

midgey

I do think it is wrong that student nurses should have to pay as if they were studying in the same way as other students. A new student may just be another pair of hands but soon they are an important part of the team. There must be another way.

Nurses shouldn’t have to pay to train. Neither should social workers.

I do agree that nurses and social workers should not have to pay for their professional education and training. We need these people and they’re not paid a fortune.

My dh has recently been very ill in hospital. All the nurses were absolutely lovely, they couldn’t do enough for us, even me as just the spouse, and not the patient.

Nonetheless, not one of the nurses realised for five days that what my dh was suffering from was neither an allergy or an infection but a very rare and serious side effect of some medication he’d been given. Thus, he’d been pumped full of drugs he didn’t need whilst not receiving the drug he did need.

Like the situation with PA’s, sometimes staff don’t know when they’re working beyond their limitations.

Barleyfields

I do agree that nurses and social workers should not have to pay for their professional education and training. We need these people and they’re not paid a fortune.

In which case, should teachers pay for their professional training? What about all the engineers that ensure we have the gas and electricity to keep us warm in winter, or all those who look after our infra structure. Where should the line be drawn and why?

Surely your husband was seen by doctors in that 5 days, SueDonim, bad form if not

Barleyfields

I do agree that nurses and social workers should not have to pay for their professional education and training. We need these people and they’re not paid a fortune.

Teachers too?

regarding paying for training. My g.daughter trained as a Social Worker, degree course - 3 years at Uni During half of Year 2 she was on a placement, working alongside social workers in mental health, and during year 3 another work placement for nine months. These were full-time placements, and obviously she received no pay, still had to pay her uni fees from her student loans.

With regard to nurses, they do a great job, if I have a choice of a nurse or a doctor to do such things as blood tests, would always opt for the nurse.

The Respitory nurse at my GP practice, picked up the fact that i had quite bad asthma, after several years of this not being noticed by GP's although I kept reporting to them breathing problems.

Nurses are highly trained now and are involved in very complex work. My friends daughter is a highly skilled theatre sister and operates robot equipment. Nurses sometimes pick up on what a doctor has missed, and the doctors value their expertise. I have every faith in nurses.

Mum2three, I think you need to reconsider your views! No wonder the nurse was put out , as for you bruised arm .............??

Shelflife

Nurses are highly trained now and are involved in very complex work. My friends daughter is a highly skilled theatre sister and operates robot equipment. Nurses sometimes pick up on what a doctor has missed, and the doctors value their expertise. I have every faith in nurses.

Nurses do indeed pick up on things missed by doctors. And as my son (consultant) tells anyone and everyone, they're much more skilled at CPR

I think some opinions on here are possibly out of date.