How things change

Listening to breakfast T.V. today, I caught the tail end of a conversation about nurses now having degrees.

Having begun my career back in the 60's,there was no such thing as a degree for nursing apart from the qualification gained through your State Registered training. You trained and that was that. It was your choice to further your career through refresher courses and other nursing fields.

I started as a State Enrolled nurse, this was the bedside nurse who was trained to be a helper for the trained staff,and worked in that capacity for 17 years.
The chance arose to move to the new hospital being built and I was one of the first nurses to move into it.
At the age of forty something, I made the decision to train as a State Registered nurse. The best move I could have made.

Gradually my career advanced, firstly as a nursing sister. Then a Special Projects nurse. Dealing with the introduction of computers into nursing{That went down like a lead balloon}The staff were most unhappy with this change that came about in the mid nineties.
I then continued my development until I was made responsible for quality assurance, ending that heady chapter as Risk and Quality Manager.

Now the point I make is that I had no further training with the exception of many courses undertaken to enhance my role. I have been told that I managed my role well until retirement.

If I have any regrets about my working life it is that I did not undertake a degree course, as undoubtedly it would have been of benefit. I strongly believe that having nurses trained to degree level, many of them advancing in their career today being required to have a MASTERS degree can only be beneficial, as was being suggested today on Breakfast T.V.