Graduate nurses don't care? 'Erroneous' media-fuelled anxiety, says report

By Chris Parr. The move to make nursing an all-graduate profession has not had a detrimental effect on the quality of care, an independent commission on the future of nurse education has found. According to the final report of The Willis Commission, published today, the move to degree-level nursing registration has become “a lightning conductor for disquiet, offering a simplistic and erroneous explanation” for a perceived increase in the number of cases where nurses have been found to neglect their patients.
“Anxiety among patients and the public – regularly fuelled by sections of the media – that graduate nurses will be less compassionate and caring than nurses without degrees provides a turbulent backdrop to the many unresolved challenges facing nursing education today,” says the report, titled 'Quality with Compassion: the future of nursing education'. More...