There have been quite a few words written and spoken about how, in terms of its advanced degrees, nursing will no longer be designated as a professional degree. Now, even Nightingale described nursing as an art and a science. The Baccalaureate, one of the most demanding undergraduate degrees, emphasizes technical skills, knowledge acquisition, humanities, and virtues such as empathy, compassion, and healing. It’s an entry-level degree, and the understanding is that a nurse will be a lifelong learner — change management and all. Modalities change, pandemics can happen, and crises have become everyday occurrences.
As a Canadian practitioner, I recognized changes in my nursing abilities during my master’s degree. The need for diverse individuals is acknowledged, though they cannot be hampered by crushing debt or by competing for fewer academic seats due to funding changes and faculty shortages. It does not bode well for the millions of patients now and in the future who will need clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, educators (clinical and academic), health executives, and specialties ranging from acute to community and long-term care. I reviewed a definition of USA Federal Law, which described the completion of academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required, for a bachelor’s degree. Professional licensure is also generally required. (U.S.C. 1082 and 1088). Now, after reading this several times, I recall that MDs receive their title after 4 years of medical school — a courtesy that acknowledges the knowledge and skills they have acquired. The Department of Education (USA) had to be referencing outdated material related to nursing, as we meet academic requirements for beginning nursing, and our clinical placements provide the foundation to achieve professional skills through mentorship and each patient case. A licensure exam is written, and then we’re conferred the professional title RN (Registered Nurse).
Health care is a system always in dynamic change, whether good or bad — it is a system that, in a generation, has transformed how nurses work, albeit at personal risk for many. Burnout is a condition, and not as much attention is placed upon the structures of power, influence, and knowledge transfer. Nursing is more than technical; it is refined assessment skills, care delivery theories, evidence-based practices, and ethics, along with communication, ideally listening to what patients want, not what you think they need.
Complex care and the complexity of environments have indeed impacted health care. Health care is more than disease management, but what nurses face 24 hours a day is increased violence, chronic staffing shortages, exhausted leaders who cycle through disaster management, clinical judgment reduced to check boxes, and finances driving care, not humans. The generational change is moving faster, and today’s reality is patient satisfaction, different world lenses, and computers are learning critical thinking.
It has been said many times that nurses are the backbone of the health care system. We need a paradigm shift towards building foundations for health care. Daresay, no other profession has the ethical frameworks, relational and emotional intelligence or clinical presence to prevent a cosmic collapse. I say that because it’s usually a nurse who answers the call bell or phone when someone is crying for help. Science and art and empathy that transcends most, we’re out here making a difference,. the clock is ticking faster. Namaste
“Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said the finest of Fine Arts.”
– Florence Nightingale
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Paula M
Retired Registered Nurse (Non-practicing) Storyteller, Healer, Scribe, Transformational Leader
Life of a Nurse 
Brilliant! Nursing is indeed a profession. We are an educated profession that through our actions have transformed health care. We are the 24/7 workers in healthcare today. Take the professional nurse out of the equation and see how long the system takes to deteriorate.