An Untrained Nurse For Mum? Healthcare Assistant Training Instead

Person_one

CIS wrote: »

It makes no difference to the training or their ability to do the job but it's indicative of the obsession with making everything need a degree - where a qualification system isn't broken there's no point spending a fortune on changing it. for the sake of it

Nursing degrees have been around since the sixties.

CIS

Nursing degrees have been around since the sixties.

They may have been but not in the same quantity as is happening now and certainly not as the only nursing qualification - pushing it to degree only, when the diploma system has been running and working well, is a waste of time and money.

Dunroamin

Person_one wrote: »

Nursing degrees have been around since the sixties.

Only in a tiny minority of cases.

Even in 2005, only 4% of nurses were educated to degree level.

http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/content/100/2/70.full

Person_one

CIS wrote: »

They may have been but not in the same quantity as is happening now and certainly not as the only nursing qualification - pushing it to degree only, when the diploma system has been running and working well, is a waste of time and money.

Nursing, and the role of the nurse is changing. Nurse education has to keep up in order to keep producing well prepared nurses who can cope with what they'll face in the NHS.

I have to admit, I think a lot of the opposition is down to good old fashioned sexism, I've never seen any complaints about male-dominated professions being over educated. Paramedics do degrees too now, where's the outrage?

Cherry_Bomb

Person_one wrote: »

You prefer your nurses to be less educated? Why?

Both diploma and degree nurses spend 50% of their training on theory and 50% out in clinical practice. What is about them having a degree that you think means they won't be as effective?

Less educated?

Why does having A levels or completing an access course prior to starting training mean the end result will be a better educated nurse?

We all go through the same 3 years coming out at the end with our registration and quite frankly that's all that matters.

Person_one

Dunroamin wrote: »

Only in a tiny minority of cases.

Even in 2005, only 4% of nurses were educated to degree level.

http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/content/100/2/70.full

Does that account for the nurses that 'topped up' through CPD courses after they were qualified?

Nursing involves career long learning, why the antipathy to it right at the beginning?

Person_one

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

Less educated?

Why does having A levels or completing an access course prior to starting training mean the end result will be a better educated nurse?

We all go through the same 3 years coming out at the end with our registration and quite frankly that's all that matters.

I'm not a degree snob, there are some brilliant diploma nurses out there, but times have changed and most of them are topping up to degree level or will have to at some stage if they want to progress at all.

CIS

I'm not a degree snob, there are some brilliant diploma nurses out there, but times have changed and most of them are topping up to degree level or will have to at some stage if they want to progress at all.

In real terms it makes no difference whether you call it it a certificate , a diploma or a degree, your still a qualified nurse at the end of it. Changing to a degree course only makes no difference to the end result and is simply down to the powers that be deciding that you need a degree to do anything.

I have to admit, I think a lot of the opposition is down to good old fashioned sexism, I've never seen any complaints about male-dominated professions being over educated. Paramedics do degrees too now, where's the outrage?

Sexism has nothing to do with it, there are plenty of male nurses (and female paramedics). The issue is the obsession with making everything, for no reason, degree orientated rather than concentrating on the real issues.

Person_one

A degree and a diploma are different levels of qualification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Qualifications_Framework

Weren't we talking about HCAs though?

I'm annoyed with myself for letting a derogatory throwaway comment derail the thread.

CIS

A degree and a diploma are different levels of qualification

They are but for nursing purposes they get you the same end result as a registered nurse whether you call it a degree or a diploma.

The same situation with qualifications applies to the job roles though - too much about what the job title is and less about what the job actually involves. If people are trained to do the job it doesn't matter what you call the job its the same end result - either people are able to do the job or not.