Nursing to become Graduate Entry

All new nurses in England from 2013 will have to spend at least three years being trained to degree level, the Department of Health 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.

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.”

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NCC Home Learning have recently launched an Access to Higher Education Diploma in the Health and Social Care subject area, which will allow students to complete our Diploma and apply for entry into University to take a Nursing Diploma or follow in the lines of these new Degree regulations.  Please see the full details of our Access to Higher Education Diploma here and call us free on 0800 970 2522 for any further detail.