<p>I have been a clinician in the Healthcare Field for over 35 years. I believe what you are seeing develop in Nursing now is what has occurred in other Healthcare disciplines (i.e. Medicine, Psychology, etc.) over the years. As interest in these fields increased there has been a progressive increase in the credentials/degrees a clinician needs to obtain in order to practice. I am sure the AACN has a voluminous document to support its new position with their bottom line probably being that patients will receive better clinical care with more highly credentialed/degreed clinicians.</p>
<p>Call me cynical but I believe there also is a hidden agenda here. It comes down to a matter of supply/demand and income. A potential increase in a number of clinicians in a field will put current clinicians at a greater risk for having more difficulty finding patients to treat and therefore is a potential threat to their income. It does not matter if there appears to be a shortage of a particular type of clinician, this fear is still going to be there. One way to address this fear is to limit the number of clinicians in the field. One way to do this is to increase the degree requirements to make the field less attractive to people interested in it.
While I certainly don’t believe this is the primary reason for the proposed changes I do feel it is an unspoken concern of the “big wigs” in Nursing, all of whom I venture to guess have Doctoral degrees. </p>
<p>If someone has good research data to support the view that MSN degreed NP’s are providing inferior or incompetent care (within the scope of their practice) because they do not have a Doctoral Degree I would love to see it. While I do agree that a Doctoral degree might allow a nurse to expand their clinical role in the care of patients (I am not exactly sure how), requiring all NP’s to have it seems a little premature to me, considering the current need for more NP’s with the pending Healthcare reforms about to take place. Unfortunately this probably is going to happen whether we like it or not (unless there is some federal legislation to impede its implementation). </p>
<p>Just my thoughts.</p>