All UK Nurses Will Need Degree in 2013

The Health Minister in Great Britain announced today that as of 2013, all nursing candidates must have completed a three year degree program at an accredited college of nursing. At the moment, most of the nurses in Britain obtain a diploma in nursing studies and then sit for the licensing exam.

Health Minister Ann Keen said: "Nurses are the largest single profession within the health service, and are critical to the delivery of high quality health care. Degree level education will provide new nurses with the decision-making skills they need to make high-level judgments in the transformed NHS (National Health Service).

Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, also welcomed the change. "This is an important and historic development, which the RCN has been in support of for many years," he said. ""All nurses need to put quality care at the center of what they do, and they also need extensive knowledge, analytical skills and experience to work in a range of settings."

The shift towards more complex roles for nurses is occurring in England just as it is in the United States. A clinical nursing degree requires focus on a great deal of technology because of the machinery that now populates hospital wards. In addition, health care in Britain is becoming more mobile.

Garth Long, the education advisor at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the country's regulatory body for nursing, said that in future more nurses will have to learn how to work on their own in the community. "There's been a tendency to think that nurses should work in residential settings [like hospitals] to consolidate their skills.

"But there will be much more health care in the community in future. Nurses need to be more confident and analytical in their work. More people are seeking a degree course that will provide a future career, so this will help recruitment."

Public health care clinics are also becoming a prevalent feature in the U.S. medical environment. Depending on what happens with the pending healthcare legislation, it's possible that health clinics will become a primary source of treatment for millions of people. Health administrators and registered nurses will be in high demand for new public institutions.